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CLAIR DE LUNE 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

A PLAY IN TWO ACTS 
AND SIX SCENES 



BY 

MICHAEL STRANGE 



^ 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 

^be Iknicftcrbocftcr ipress 

1921 



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Copyright, 192 1 

by 
G. P. Putnam's Sons 

Printed in the United, States of America 



All acting rights are reserved by the author. 
Application for the rights of performing this 
play should be made to Michael Strange, who 
may be addressed in care of the publishers. 



/*1.% 




©CI.A614309 " 



CHARACTERS 



THE COURT 

The Queen . . Miss Ethel Barry?nore 
The Duchess of 

Beaumont . Miss Violet Kemble Cooper 

Prince Charles . Mr. Henry Daniell 

Phedro . . . . Mr. Herbert Grimwood 

A Chancellor, Courtiers, Ladies-in- Waiting, 
Lackeys, Maids 

THE MOUNTEBANKS 

Ursus — A Philosopher . Mr. E. Lyall Swete 

Dea — A Blind Dancer . Miss Jane Cooper 

Another Dancer . Miss Olga Barowski 

GwYM PLANE — A Clown Mr. John Barry more 

Drummer Boys, a Sailor 



CLAIR DE LUNE 



Note — Suggestions for the play, also the names of mountebanks 
and villain, are taken Trom L'Homme qui Ril, by Victor Hugo. 



ACT I 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Act I 

Scene i 

[An old park with avenues of trees lead- 
ing away in all directions. Directly in 
background of stage there is a sheet of 
water fringed hy willow and poplar trees. 
On the right and left is a high box hedge 
formed in curves with the top clipped in 
grotesque shapes mostly of birds. A statue 
is placed in the centre of each hedge, and 
beneath the statues are seats. 

When the curtain rises several courtiers 
are discovered wandering or sitting about. 
There is much laughing and whispering 
behind fans.] 

2D Courtier 

What an extraordinary evening! How 
calm the water is ! It makes the swans look 
exactly like topaz clouds reflecting in a ti- 
tanic mirror. 

3 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

A Lady 

Yes. The sky is just as clear as the Queen's 
ear-rings of aquamarine. A storm could 
hardly blow up out of such blueness, so the 
masque is bound to be heavenly. 

3D Courtier [approaching] 

I hate to interrupt your celestial jargon 
with human speech, but does anybody know 
whether Phedro has been able to find the 
Prince and give him the Queen's command? 

Lady [answering with frigid distinction] 

Probably not, but the Prince can never be 
found and is always forgiven. It is much to 
be loved in secret by a 

1ST Courtier [laying finger on his lips] 
Hush! 

2D Courtier [reprovingly] 

At court one must try not to think aloud 
or one is perhaps overheard by — [makes the 
motion of a blade across his throat]. 

2D Lady 

O nonsense! Why, Phedro confides in 
everybody, and so nobody ever beheves him. 
Yet he is always quite right. 

4 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

2D Courtier 

He puts his nose into the dust that is swept 
out of great corners. Indeed he looks in un- 
thinkable places, and finds the incredible. 

1ST Courtier 
Do you know what he told me lately ? 

Lady 
I am ailing with curiosity. 

1ST Courtier 

It was a fantastic tale about one of our own 
lot. Indeed about one wearing strawberry 
leaves and with two very young sons growing 
up, and she, apparently imagining the younger 
to be the Hving hkeness, growing plainer 
every day, of a former indiscretion, gives di- 
rections to her favourite lackey to get rid of 
this wrong one and he, from spleen, gives the 
honest child away. The lady dies shortly 
after; the father never suspects anything. 
The bastard inherits, so the entire tragedy 
was in vain. 

3D Courtier 

Fear is always absurd. You should be 
quite sure you are found out first ; even then 
you have only to look rather sharply at any- 

5 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

one you fear in order to reduce Him. Indeed, 
the best of defences is presumption upon the 
brotherhood of sin. 

A Lady 

how true ! 

Phedro 

[A person of shifty, wizened visage en- 
ters. In a jocular tone.] 

What is "O how true?" [He glances about 
him.] You are all looking very en rapport 
with the Almighty. In fact as if He had been 
telHng you secrets. Did they concern me? 
I am always a prey to the desire of hearing 
what is said — just before and just after I am 
in a room. 

1ST Courtier 

[With much pomposity hiding his em- 
barrassment.] 

We were commanded to be in attendance 
on the Queen. Could you find Prince 
Charles? You were sent to find him, were 
you not? 

Phedro [nodding to the right] 

1 have achieved my significant purpose. 
The Prince is playing at croquet with the 

6 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Duchess, and says when the Queen arrives 
to let him know. 



1ST Courtier 

He is very casual. How very indiscreet of 
him! — to show so plainly his passion for the 
Duchess. 

Phedro 

Oh no! Mountains cannot knock one an = 
other down. They can only be blown up, 
from underneath [smiles enigmatically]. 

1ST Courtier 

You are difficult to follow. 

Phedro 

My lord, I am speaking in metaphor. It 
is a dodge I learned from the poets. 

3D Courtier 

I repeat, you are difficult and poetry is 
impossible to follow. However, poetry is no 
longer the fashion. 

[Takes a pinch of snuff, and looks with 
agreeable enmity at 2D Courtier.] 

7 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Phedro [deprecatingly] 

I merely try to match my words against 
your silks and laces, my lord. But — her 
Majesty is approaching. 

[Enter the Queen, a sharp-featured, 
neurotic-looking woman. One of her Cab- 
inet is speaking earnestly to her and she 
is paying him scant attention.] 

Minister 

It is vitally necessary that we should dis- 
cover upon what terms they would capitulate. 

Queen 

Yes, and they must be heavily taxed for 
holding out so long. Imagine other people 
presuming to be patriotic. It simply draws 
everything out to such an absurd length. 
Ah, how irritable it makes me to think. 
Phedro, where is the Prince, where is Prince 
Charles? 

[During the last of her speech she with- 
draws her arm from the Minister's, who, 
seeing there is no further hope of holding 
her attention, withdraws respectfully and 
quite unobserved.] 
8 



CLAIR DE LUNE 



Phedro 



Attending impatiently the arrival of your 
Majesty upon the other side of the copse. 
I go to make him aware of your presence. 

[He bows himself out, and the Queen 
looking anxiously in the direction of the 
vanishing Phedro espies Prince 
Charles and the Duchess upon a lawn] 

Queen [adjusti^ig her lorgftette] 

How silly people look playing croquet. 
The Duchess appears to me exactly like a 
bent hairpin. 

2D Courtier 

[Looking also in the direction of the 
Duchess and half admiringly.] 

Indeed, Madame, her Grace is too tall to 
look well bending down. 

Queen [turning upon him] 

I hope you are not hiding a mud-sling in 
your silk swallow-tail. Perhaps you forget a 
courtier's principal duty should be the cul- 
ture of tact, and tact is nothing whatever 
but helping me exaggerate my humours until 
I tire of them. 

9 



CLAIR BE LUNE 

2D Courtier 

Indeed, indeed, Madame, your Majesty's 
brilliance blinds my eyes with humility. 

[Enter Prince Charles, a slender, ex- 
otic-looking gentleman.] 

Prince 

Dear Cousin, how delicious you are look- 
ing — so royal and alert. [He bends over her 
hand.] Ah! [His vitality seems suddenly to 
leave him at the thought.] I have just been 
trying to lessen Josephine's habitual ennui 
by making her my victim at croquet. 

Queen 

[With a slight lounge into sentimen- 
tality.] 

I am sure she, like many others, is easily 
your victim — at croquet. But come, let us 
be alone, let us dismiss this chain of faces, 
they confine my thoughts. I would like to 
talk well, I would Hke to talk fantastically, 
that is, I wish you would think of something 
original for tonight's entertainment. 

[She signals to the courtiers that they 
may leave.] 
After all it is the prelude to your nuptials. 

10 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Let us think of something to surprise Jose- 
phine. 

Prince 

To surprise Josephine ! But nothing could 
surprise Josephine. 

Queen 

You are probably mistaken. I beHeve any 
reality would surprise her. All her Hfe she 
has watched life passing in a mirror. She has 
never touched a thing — I think she has very 
curious hands. But let us — — 

[She perceives that some of the courtiers 
are still lingering about. Turns to them.] 

I have several times intimated that you may 
disperse. 

[Courtiers go out swiftly.] 

[Looking at Prince wistfully.] You can im- 
agine that I am a httle sad today. There is 
a mist between me and everything else, the 
gardens are dull, the flowers have lost their 
fragrance. A sirocco seems blowing up from 
the graves of all young people who have 
never been given a chance. Tell me, do you 
care much for Josephine? 
II 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Charles [pompously] 

My Cousin, my Sovereign, this marriage 
has been arranged, I presume in Heu of my 
lost brother, the Prince of Vaucluse, and 
apparently in order further to quilt your 
Majesty's exchequer. 

Queen [interrupting him] 

Your poor brother; your poor brother; if 
it had been he, how much heartbreak I would 
have been spared. 

Prince 

Which means, your Majesty? 

Queen 

That I have been talking to myself, and 
you have been listening, which is ungallant, 
as if you were to let me put rouge on my nose 
instead of on my cheeks without stopping me. 

Prince 

[Rather uneasily returning to a favourite 
subject] 
Well, your Majesty, now I have accus- 
tomed myself so long to the idea of my 
marriage that it gives me pleasure and calm 
to dwell on it, especially when I gaze upon 

12 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Josephine's tapering regality — then I am 
most incHned to think your esteemed father, 
our former King, was wise in recommending 
it, and that Fate was not too unkind in dis- 
posing of my half-brother in her own mys- 
terious way. 

[He smiles rather unpleasantly.] 

Queen 
[Who has not attended the last part of 
his speech.] 

Yes. To provide at one clip for her — the 
child of his love, and for me, the result of 
his duty, proved him a parent, a statesman, 
and, tonight, I am a httle incHned to think, a 
blackguard. However, you know this mar- 
riage has none of my command in it and there 
are many ways out. 

[Phedro invisible to the Queen and 

the Prince slides into the shadow 0} a 

giant oak tree.] 

Prince 
You mean if either of us 

Queen 

That if any charge of unworthiness could 
be brought by either of you against the other, 

13 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

then it would be my duty even at the last 
hour 

Prince [suddenly] 

Well, unfortunately, my various dissipa- 
tions have only rendered me romantic in the 
eyes of your court, and as for Josephine 

Queen 

Ah, her appearance gives no clue to her 
mind [with an attempted lightness], save occa- 
sionally there is too much scent on her 
cambric. 

Prince 

Why do you dislike Josephine? 

Queen 

I do not dislike her, but she behaves unbe- 
comingly. She is very arrogant. Arrogance 
does not become a bastard. 

Prince [in a teasing vein] 

You do dislike her. You hate her, even 
though she is your half-sister, but I find her 
enchanting. I adore her cold, slender finger 
tips and the perfection of her contemptuous 
profile. She moves exactly like a swan. 

14 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Queen [trying to control her emotion] 

At last you are giving yourself entirely 
away. I am hearing what I know. Ugh! 
how doubly unpleasant! 

Prince 

Why should I not give myself away to you, 
Cousin ? 

Queen 

You mean I am powerless to harm either 
of you. 

Prince 
Why should you wish to harm us? 

Queen 

There are many things you might not 
understand ; for instance, there is a love that 
is half hatred. It is sprinkled into life in a 
rather strange manner — by wounds. How- 
ever, I am becoming sentimental and I hate 
sentimentality. It reminds me of people with 
colds in their heads who have lost their pocket 
handkerchiefs. 

Prince [in evident uneasiness] 
Madame, your eloquence is remarkable, 
15 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

but to say that you are mysterious is all that 
I dare to say. 

Queen 

You dare to say what you want to say 
[bitterly]. You have courage enough to satisfy 
your curiosities like everybody else, but I 
have always noticed that when people are 
not curious their manners become extraor- 
dinary. However, we are forgetting about 
the fdte. Let us call Phedro. 

Prince [bowing] 

With pleasure. 

[He calls. Phedro emerges after a few 
seconds at an entirely different angle from 
the place where he was concealed.] 

Phedro 

Majesty. 

Queen 

[Addressing him in a peremptory voice.] 

It is my wish that you should think of 
something bizarre to be included in the fes- 
tivities of tonight. The Prince and myself 
do not seem able to put our minds on it. 
l6 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Phedro 

I think most certainly, Majesty, there 
should be something bizarre about these 
festivities, but Majesty 

[He makes her a low bow.] 

Queen [interrogatively] 
Yes? 

Phedro [sliding up to her] 

Could I beg a moment alone with your 
Majesty? For it would be my humble view 
that both fiances share the surprise. 

Queen 

[Turning to the Prince with a gesture 
of dismissal.] 

Go along, Charles. At any rate you have 
a sort of sleight-of-hand manner of looking 
at your watch that makes me rather nervous. 

Prince 

[Taking her hand, and becoming mis- 
chievously eloquent with relief] 

Then, au revoir, my Cousin. When this 
garish day is drowned in the sapphire pool of 
night, and we are all Hke pallid flowers tossed 

17 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

upon moody currents of mysterious desire, 
perhaps — who knows? our petals may touch 
in that tender gloom of night and music. 

[Bends tenderly, whimsically over her 
hand.] 

Queen 

[Gazing after his exit enraptured, once 
more hopeful, then turning to Phedro.] 

Ah, Phedro, what joy there is in being 
foolish ! 

Phedro 

Pleasure has two extremes, Madame. One 
is to have your lover in your arms, the other 
is to have him in your power. 

Queen [pacing up and down] 

I must have one or the other. What can 
be done. Think for me, advise me. I am 
too unstrung to think for myself. When one 
wants a thing very much, everything blurs. 

Phedro 

There are many voices whispering all to- 
gether in my mind. In a little perhaps one 
will be louder than the rest — then we may 
plan. 

i8 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Queen 

But the fete. We are continually forget- 
ting about the f^te. 

Phedro 

[Thinking, with his finger against his 
lips.] 

Out of one purpose often comes another 
perfected. 

Queen 

You are talking in enigmas, and it is grow- 
ing late. See how long and slender the poplar 
shadows are getting on the grass. When the 
wind and sun touch them they look a little 
like obelisks flashed over with strange writ- 
ings. 

Phedro 

Your Majesty is adding the accompHsh- 
ment of a poet to the genius of a sovereign. 

Queen [shivering] 

No, I would not like to be a poet. They 
are always dying of ennui or madness. But, 
Phedro, to the point. 

19 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Phedro [suddenly] 

Majesty, some mountebanks arrived at the 
park lodge last night. They crave to play 
before your Majesty. 

Queen [coming out of a reverie] 
Are they dancers, or do they act plays? 

Phedro 

Their performance I understand is peculiar. 
One of them is bHnd, the other is deformed in 
some way. With them is a doctor of philo- 
sophy, one who heals the scars of flesh or heart 
with powders or words befitting the case. 

Queen [wanly] 
They do not sound original. 

Phedro 

And yet from the effect they stir there 
must be something. It appears the clown 
causes those who are incurably sad to faint 
with laughter. 

Queen 

It would be charming to laugh, to be un- 
able to help laughing. Have them sent to 

20 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

my porter in the northern wing and I will 
interview them before the masque. Ah, here 
comes the Duchess leaning upon her Prince's 
arm. I must say she looks as if there might 
be something more amusing to lean upon. 

[Enter Josephine and the Prince.] 

Queen 

Well, Josephine. 

Duchess 

Well, my sister. 

[Sighs and stoops over a bed of helio- 
trope.] 

Queen 

Why are you so melancholy, Josephine? 
You are standing in the portals of joy — I 
confess they do not appear very much to 
intrigue you. 

Duchess 

Possibly I am melancholy because I am 
not curious. 

Queen [sarcastically] 
No, rocks could hardly be curious about 

21 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

the \^aves or the wrecks washing against 
them. Come, Phedro. 

[She goes. Prince hows after the 
Queen and then comes back to the 
Duchess.] 

Prince 

Beauty like yours is a penance for other 
women to regard. You are very like an ex- 
quisite temple in which there is no god. Yet 
I would not put a god in your temple. 

Duchess [rather bored] 
No? What would you put there? 

Prince 

In the very centre of your temple I would 
place a faun with swift, strange limbs, crisp, 
serpentine hair, and the smile of a demon. 

Duchess [turning to him slowly] 

The smile of a demon ? I think that would 
be enchanting. Ah, how tired I am, I think 
I will go and rest. What in the world is one 
tired from? What does one rest for 

[She pauses in rather a lost manner.] 



22 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Prince 

Yes, do go and rest, for tomorrow you must 
be radiant as a new-blown flower in the first 
rays of the sun. 

Duchess 

[Turning to him with a faint curiosity.] 

I suppose that afterwards my appearance 
will please you, even if my spirits are never 
particularly high. 

Prince 

I do not care about your spirits. I do not 
care about your soul. I love the pliant 
rippHng motion of your pensive youth. I 
love your imperial beauty, for it throws open 
the last sealed chambers of my own fancy. 

Duchess 

Fancy — fancy — I have fancied so many 
things. 

[The sound of an approaching flute is 
heard together with the creaking of a 
carriage.] 

A strange sound, what can it be? 

[During the ensuing speeches the creaking 
and the flute come nearer.] 

23 



CLAIR DE LUNE 



Prince 



Josephine, our life together will be ex- 
quisite. It will be as the lives of the Romans 
in Greece — a bacchanale of peculiar formali- 
ties. We will bury conscience in the poppy- 
haunted air of exhausting revelry. We 
will 

Duchess 

O Charles, you talk exactly like those men 
who design my dresses, but look 

[Her eyes are riveted upon a curious 
cavalcade crossing from right to left of 
stage, first a very small house on wheels 
drawn by a large wolf-dog; at its side, 
walking, an old man, his head bent in 
deep thought. He wears the cap and gown 
of a doctor of philosophy. After him, 
with dark hair falling almost to the ground 
about her pallid face, is walking a girl 
of extraordinary beauty. She is looking 
rigidly ahead of her and is being guided 
by a white ribbon suspended from the 
back of the cart. A few paces behind her 
comes a sinuous, coffee-skinned slave girl 
with that erect majesty of one who has 
worn crowns or carried water pitchers 
through generations. Behind the slave 
24 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

follows the flute player, a mountebank, 
horribly twisted in some manner not visible 
in the twilight. The Prince, who has 
permitted the carriage to go by him in a 
wonderment intensified by the beauty of 
the blind girl, walks over to the mounte- 
bank.] 

Prince [arrogantly] 

Who are you all? What are you doing 
here ? 

[Instead of answering, the mountebank 
hastily puts his f.ute into his pocket and 
executes a handspring, the third taking 
him altogether behind the scene, while from 
the front of the cavalcade, comes a high, 
cracked voice in answer to the Prince's 
question.] 

A Voice 

We are players, your Highness, mounte- 
banks commanded for the pleasure of the 
Queen. 

[The Duchess has grown very white 
and is standing with her hand pressing 
her heart.] 

Duchess 

What was that tune he played upon his 
25 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

flute, and what dreadful thing was the matter 
with him? 

Prince 

I do not know, but as she walked by her 
face was beautiful. It was Hke a prayer 
coming into the presence of God. 

Duchess [regarding the Prince sharply] 

Really? What can be speaking in you? 
Surely not yourself? 

[She laughs shrilly and exits. The flute 
continues to play. The Prince absorbed, 
unheeding her departure, stands looking 
after the mountebanks.] 



CURTAIN 



26 



Scene 2 

[In the palace grou7ids at night. Lan- 
terns are suspended everywhere from the 
trees. The front of the players' cart is 
seen protruding upstage left. The philo- 
sopher is seated on the steps of the car 
smoking a pipe. The blind girl with strange, 
tentative footsteps and feeling hands is busy 
with duties around the cart.] 

Dea 

Think of it ; we are in the park of the Queen, 
and these HHes and roses are brushed every 
day by the silken stir of her ladies-in-waiting. 

Ursus 

Well, I do not feel much elated at being 
here. An ambition gained is an ambition 
lost, and I am too old to have many ambi- 
tions. 

Dea 

It is wonderful to be in the park of the 
Queen — to think that the shade of these 

27 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

i^ame trees darkens her jewels at midday, and 
that through them is cast over her a shawl 
of glittering ribbons upon moonHght nights. 

Ursus [patting her shoulder and smiling] 

Joy makes poets out of all of us. [Half to 
himself] But it is only a poet who can sing 
in the clutches of death and pain. 

Dea [very thoughtfully] 

Yet underneath all my joy I am thinking 
hard tonight of the beginning of things. I 
wonder, I wonder is it because I am Hearing 
the end of things. 

Ursus 

Dea, dearest, you are not ill tonight ? You 
have not again those fiutterings in your heart ? 

Dea 

Not more than I can bear. How good 
Gwymplane has been to me! I wish I had 
been old enough to see him on the night he 
got lost, and found me in the snow on my 
dead mother's breast, and God led us to you. 

Ursus 

I do not wish to think of that night. You 
were like a tiny, frozen rose-petal, and he — 
28 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

he was so small himself it didn't seem possible 
he could have carried you all the way and 

God 

[Ursus covers his face with his hands 
and speaks in a low voice.] 

When you were both under the lamp I 
asked him what he found to smile at. I 
asked him roughly to stop smiling. 

Dea [happily] 

Yes, Gwymplane always smiles, doesn't he? 
He must have a very contented spirit. I 
wish that I could see his smile. How it 
provokes other people to laugh ! 

[Ursus looks at her pityingly, and pats 
her on the shoulder.] 

I smile and weep a great deal lately over 
my love for Gwymplane, and I am frightened 
about one thing. 

Ursus 

What is that? 

Dea 

That someone is going to make him un- 
happy. 

Ursus 

Gwymplane worships you. While you are 
29 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

singing and smiling I do not think anything 
could make him unhappy. 

Dea 

I hope not. You know I feel that he has 
given his soul into my hands and that I must 
take care of it as I would a little child. Yes, 
I feel as if Gwymplane were my child, and 
yet something more than my child that 
makes my heart bound and my song tremble 
into silence. 

[A nightingale sings in the distance.] 

Ursus 
My Dea! 

Dea 

Tell me, Ursus, Gwymplane is so wonder- 
ful. He — he attracts everyone so. Does he 
never notice any especial person in the audi- 
ence? Some one whom he attracts? 

Ursus 

No, Dea, and you need never worry about 
that. Gwymplane will never love or be 
beloved save by you. 

Dea 

Ah, how good it is to hear that! How 
30 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

beautiful tonight is! I would like to sit 
forever like this, very near to you and talking 
of Gwymplane. 

[A sudden voice almost at their elbow. 
Enter Phedro.] 

Phedro 

But everyone is talking of Gwymplane. 
[Ursus rising whispers to Dea to go.] 

Why do you dismiss your beautiful daugh- 
ter? Her pallor, her most haunting stare, 
have already sown chaos in the heart of a 
certain important personage. 

Ursus 
Leave me, Dea. 

[Dea silently exits.] 
Who are you who visit us so abruptly? 

Phedro [whimsically] 

I think I am a cork upon very troubled 
waters. 

Ursus 
That does not answer me enough. 
31 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Phedro 

Then I am a web binding men and women 
while they sleep to unexpected things. 

Ursus 
Ah, you are a trouble maker? 

Phedro 

No — but I discover what is unusual in 
the senses of one person and in the circum- 
stances of another person — Indeed, I have 
had a splendid training. 

Ursus 

Where? 

Phedro 

I have been — but I was almost showing 
you the colour of the water I rose from. 

Ursus 
Well, I have no curiosity. 

Phedro 

That is exactly why one wishes to talk to 

you. Curiosity in other people always makes 

me terribly suspicious. I remember suddenly 

the reasons that can make me curious. Now 

32 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

I can talk to you, for one feels you might 
not even listen, so you couldn't possibly care 
enough to repeat. I was a lackey once. 

Ursus 
A sordid position. 

Phedro 

[Becomes slightly frenzied during his 
speech.] 

Yes. A servant is something to absorb 
the spittle of their irritability. A hand to 
arrange the pages of their private diary when 
they get stuck together with filth ; and above 
all a presence between them and the mirror 
during those grey dawn hours when passing 
it, they are likely to see themselves as they 
are. Ah, then one must be armed with the 
eloquence of Cato to reassure these sow's 
ears that they are still silk purses. Otherwise 
the devil has to be bought off in the morning 
and with three times the effort. One thing 
they never count on, however. 

Ursus 

And that? 

Phedro 
The effect on another human being of their 
' 33 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

absurdity and the passion of malice they 
rouse from a too long concealed contempt. 

Ursus [looking at him curiously] 
Contempt is the armour of snakes. 

Phedro [his face undergoing a change] 

Is it truly, my fine gentleman? Well, my 
mind has been wandering and stumbled on a 
cul-de-sac as usual. Ah, the hope of being 
understood — it is almost extinct. However, 
if I cannot be understood, I shall, neverthe- 
less, be felt. 

Ursus 
Well, what do you want of me? I am a 
philosopher and as such am not occupied 
with any sort of facts. 

Phedro 
I suppose not. You philosophers are blind 
men in dark rooms looking for the footprints 
of shadows, are you not ? 

Ursus [smiling] 
Not at all. We philosophers have merely 
learned to practice humour in the presence 
of what is commonplace. But what is it you 
do want of me? 

34 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Phedro 

What everybody wants- — to talk about 
Gwymplane. 

Ursus 
Well? 

Phedro 

Have you had this gold mine with you 
long? 

Ursus 
Years and years. 

Phedro 

You bought him, I suppose, from some 
travelling show? 

Ursus 

No, he came to me of his own accord, and 
yet by accident. 

Phedro 

Was he riding the wind? And did it drop 
him by chance upon your knees? 

Ursus 

He came by accident. He remains of his 
own accord. 

Phedro 
Curious. 

35 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Ursus 

What is curious ? 

Phedro 
The irrelevancy of my mind. 

Ursus 
Of what were you thinking? 

Phedro 

Tell me, did you — did you — ever hear of 
the Comprachicos ? 

Ursus 

Yes — why ? 

Phedro 
Inhuman people they must have been. 

Ursus 

Not more so than those who gave them 
their practice. 

Phedro 

They have provided most of the circuses 
that roam around the world with freaks. 

Ursus 

They had a great knowledge of surgery, 

36 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Phedro 

Yes. They had an amusing way of putting 
young children into a press — young children 
whose existence it would have been very 
uncomfortable to admit in certain glittering 
circles. This press w^as shaped like a bottle 
so that the growth became abnormal, and 
when the press was lifted the human form 
had already attained the shape of a bottle. 
They could also print everlastingly rather 
strange expressions upon the human counte- 
nance. 

Ursus [starts] 
Yes, yes, I have heard of that. 

Phedro 

However, even such people were afraid to 
die. 

Ursus 

During the death of the worst person his 
soul shines through for a moment. 

Phedro [rather uncomfortable] 

Well, well, to go back. A strange story 
came under my authority written by one of 
these Comprachicos. 

37 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Ursus 
Really, how was that? 

Phedro 
You know I am an official. 



Ursus 
Of what sort ? 



Phedro 

I am the examining magistrate of all the 
jetsam from the sea that is washed from any- 
where whatever upon our shores. 

Ursus 
That is an original position ! 

Phedro 

It was created for me by the Queen to 
whom I have rendered much service. But 
I was saying that a most extraordinary story 
happened along in a medicine bottle that had 
floated for years upon the sea. 

Ursus 

Ump! 

38 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Phedro 

Ah — it was a long confession, and it had 
floated for about fifteen years in the sea. 

[He is watching Ursus narrowly.] 
Ursus [starting visibly] 

Phedro 
What were you about to say? 

Ursus 

When one has talked to one's self for a 
great many years it is hard to hold one's 
tongue in public. 

[Enter the Prince — debonair and 
haughty. Prince ignores Philosopher 
and pulls Phedro aside.] 

Prince 
Well! What have you arranged? 

Phedro 

My lord — the desires of youth are swifter 
than my wits. Yet I have tried. 

Prince 

Nonsense. ... No rhetoric. . . . 
What is accompHshed? 

39 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Phedro 

It will be easily managed. I have your 
keys. 

Prince 
Is she willing ? 

Phedro 

Innocence is always obHging at such a 
moment. 

Prince 

Neither the Queen nor the Duchess must 
have an inkling of this. 

Phedro 
No, my lord. 

Prince 

Tonight and tomorrow night. . . . What 
contrasts! Two crimes! A secret and a 
public one! 

Phedro 

My lord is sardonic. 

[Ursus after looking at them for a few 
moments has wandered off to the cart, and 
is seen making preparations for the evening's 
performance. There is the sound 0/ Dea's 
singing.] 

40 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Prince 

Ah, how exquisite! I think I shall go and 
speak with her! 

Phedro [detaining him] 
Better not, my lord, much better not. 

Prince [shaking him off] 

All right, all right. Only don't insist, 
don't irritate me or I shall spite myself. . . . 
I cannot bear to take any one's advice. 

Phedro 

Nor do you, my lord. I merely reminded 
you of the presence of your own common 
sense. 

Prince 

[A pettish grimace flashing across his 
countenance] 

I hope this performance may make the 
Duchess forget herself for a few moments. 
She has seemed more than ordinarily bored 
today. 

Phedro [murmuring] 

To be so matchless as her Grace is as bad 
as being blind. It gives one nowhere to look. 

41 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Prince 

She is perfection outside; inside — I do not 
know. Where is that distorted fellow that 
bounded away from me in the darkness just 
before dinner? 

Phedro 

Oh — Gwymplane — he is probably off some- 
where charming the birds awake with his 
flute. 

Prince [in reverie] 

Yes, Josephine is magnificent. Yet I 
think there is a strange grimace upon the 
face of her soul. I am longing to find out 
what is at the bottom of her smile. Ah, I 
shall be the first to bathe in her delights. It 
is a most invigorating thought. 

[He plucks a flower and places it in his 
buttonhole.] 

Phedro 
My lord finds it enchanting to be the first ? 

Prince 

It is the only enchantment. If you were 
a real man, you would know that, Phedro, 
42 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

but if you were really a man I could not 
confide in you. 

Phedro [winces then recovers himself] 
My lord was saying 

Prince [in a mood of reverie] 

That passion yearns for surprises — and 
love hankers after peace. 

Phedro 
And in your marriage, my lord? 

Prince 
I yearn for surprises. Of course the right 
sort of surprises. 

Phedro 
You will get them, my lord. 

Prince 

[Who is not attending him but listening 
to Dea's song.] 
What? 

Phedro 

My sixth sense whispers to me, my lord, 
that you are on the eve of many surprises. 

[The noise of the wand of the Court 

43 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Steward is heard pounding through the 
park.] 

An Approaching Voice 

The Queen's court is arriving. The Queen's 
court precedes the Queen. See that the per- 
formance is ready. See that the performance 
is ready. 

[The voice dies away. There is the 
sound of much commotion in the vicinity 
of the cart. The voice of Dea ceases and 
someone calls: Gwymplane! Gwym- 
PLANE answering distantly: Yes. Ursus : 
Hurry. Gwymplane: I come. The 
Prince and Phedro steal quickly away.] 



CURTAIN 



44 



Scene 3 

[Courtiers entering. A lady looking through 
her lorgnette.] 

A Lady 
I hope this is not going to be too boring. 

3D Courtier 

Ah, that, Madame, is the pleasure-seeker's 
prayer. Save me this night from being bored 
to death. 

2D Courtier [a great dandy] 

I hope they have enchanting costumes, and 
that they are well perfumed. 

[He smells a scrap of lace.] 

Lady 
I hear he is remarkable. 



2D Courtier 

Who? 

45 



CLAIR DE LUNE 



Lady 



The mountebank, I forget his name. He 
has a Latin name besides, which I forget 
also, but they say that when he appears. 

Court Usher [announces] 

The Queen. 

[The Queen arrives surrounded by a 
brilliant court. Josephine attends her, 
dressed entirely in silver and wearing im- 
mense emeralds. Her hair is very for- 
mally powdered, and she wears a cherry- 
coloured cloak. A coloured slave in black 
moire carries her train.] 

Queen 

I am not in a mood for laughing tonight. 
[She glances at Josephine.] At any rate it is 
always singularly depressing to go an3rwhere 
in order to laugh. And if this clown causes 
me even to smile he shall have some rare re- 
ward. 

[Seats herself upon a raised dais. Cour- 
tiers group themselves around her. Most 
of the ladies have seats. Many of the 
gentlemen sit at their feet,] 
46 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Josephine 

[Listlessly fluttering her Jan; she is on 
the left of the Queen and near the audi- 
ence.] 

How tedious ! For what are they delaying ? 

Prince [standing over her] 
We are scarcely seated. 

Josephine 

Waiting is so tedious. It puts me in a bad 
humour, and I lose my enthusiasm. 

Prince 

Before you have quite found it, eh? 

[A gong sounds. Two stalwart men 
move the cart to left centre of stage; with a 
click the sides of the carriage are flung 
open and a stage about twelve feet wide and 
four feet above the ground appears. In the 
back is a green curtain, ornamented with 
constellations. Suddenly a grotesque figure 
completely hooded and masked, attended 
by two small drummer boys, makes its 
appearance. The figure squats upon the 
floor in direct centre of stage. The drum- 
mers seat themselves beside it and all 

47 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

three begin to play; the attendants upon 
their drums, the centre figure upon a flute. 
No human part of him can he seen, save 
Ms hands which are remarkably beautiful, 
sensitive and pallid. He moves them with 
extraordinary grace. He plays upon his 
flute an air from India. Suddenly upon 
the stage above him^ appears a Hindu girl. 
She executes a sinuous pantomimic dance 
of youth and desire. The figure playing 
upon the fiute gradually turns his back 
to the audience and facing the dancer con- 
tinues to play. Finally the dancer, notic- 
ing her admirer, commences to dance for 
him alone. The music becomes more 
breathless; the hooded figure plays a 
screaming tone upon his flute. Immedi- 
ately a third slave, attired as a drummer, 
rushes out and catches his flute from the 
green masque, who jumps upon the stage, 
and seizing the dancer, savagely — grace- 
fully, about her slim waist, dances with 
her, at once tenderly and primitively.] 



Queen 

What agility and strength the man has got. 
He has made me catch my breath already, 
which is far better than to laugh. 
48 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Josephine 
He dances like a demon over burning altars. 

Prince 
What was that, Josephine? 

Josephine 

Don't distract my attention. 

Prince [laughing] 

Attention? Attention? Why, Josephine, 
I never knew that gift was among your 
talents ! 

Josephine 
ShISh! 

[During the dance, the Hindu girl be- 
comes more afid more enamoured of her 
partner, who eludes and attacks her in a 
perfect frenzy of grace and passion. Fi- 
lially she tries to unmask him or to pull 
off his cloak, without success. A chime is 
heard. The drummers play a strange, 
sinister march. An old man enters — the 
slave owner. He sees his slave in the arms 
of one whom she obviously loves, and 
rushes at the masked figure with his sword. 
At this the green mask flings the girl away 
' 49 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

from him, tears off his mask, throws ope?i 
his coat and stands revealed before the 
slave owner, but with his back to the au- 
dience. The man is about to let fall his 
sword when he looks upon what he is 
about to kill. Gradually his jaw drops 
with amazement and he lets out a terrible 
yell of laughter. The slave girl who has 
stood watching him, now creeps round to 
see what is causing him so much mirth, 
and gazing up suddenly into the face of 
her partner utters a shriek of horror and 
runs from the stage. The slave owner 
follows her, his sides shaking with laughter. 
The figure stands rigidly transfixed, his 
back still to the audience.] 

Josephine [leaning forward eagerly] 

What can he be Hke ! I wish he would turn 
round. 

Prince 

You seem interested, Josephine. Do these 
wretched mummers really . . . 

[But Josephine is leaning forward 
intently for the music has begun again. 
This time the figure is doing a strange 
dance of loneliness and search for his 
departed partner, his mask lies upon the 

50 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

ground, but he shields himself with his 
cloak. Occasionally in the wildness of his 
dance it slips a little, permitting glimpses 
of parts of his face.] 

Queen [suddenly in a tone of fright] 
What is it the man has upon his face? Is 
it a great scar? 

Josephine 

No ! No ! It is his mouth that is Hke that. 
[Her excitement is obviously gathering 
to an almost unbearable point as the dance 
proceeds. In a low voice:] 

Oh, he is deformed, he is terribly deformed, 
his shoulders are not abreast of one another. 
Or is it some devil's head squatting upon his 
body of an angel. 

A Voice 

No, it is his legs; they are bent in opposite 
directions. 

A Voice 

No wonder the lady will not come back 
to him! 

[Gwymplane's dance seems to be reach- 
ing a climax; he has nosed about the floor 
like a dog; he has tried to leap over the 

51 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

roof in order to discover his lost sweetheart, 
and now he turns facing the audience, his 
arms outstretched in pitiful dejection. 
There is an instant's deep silence, and 
then a great laugh rings out from the audi- 
ence. The Queen herself rocks to and fro, 
backward and forward behind her fan. 
Josephine starts forward, in her face a 
mixture of amusement, giving gradually 
way to some sinister thought which makes 
her gaze fixedly at the mountebank with 
parted lips. Her unswerving glance at 
length draws his eyes towards her and for 
one single instant their glances seem to 
pass through one another — the exquisite 
duchess, the grotesque clown. No one has 
seen the look, save Phedro, who wipes 
his lips with an expression of intense 
amusement. Suddenly from behind Gwym- 
PLANE steps Dea, and he returns with 
an almost imperceptible start to his act. 
Seeing this lovely apparition, he throws 
himself at her feet, and she, apparently 
perceiving him, does not repel him but 
puts her slim hands in his wild hair, and 
they go through some tender motions to an 
exquisite melody upon the flute. Gradu- 
ally with gestures of pity and love she 
invites him to go with her, and he hardly 
52 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

believing is about to be led away, when 
suddenly the oriental melody begins again. 
The dancer appears. She glances at 
GwYM PLANE with the hypnotized fascina- 
tion of utter horror. Dea attempts draw- 
ing GwYMPLANE away, but he resists, 
becoming again a victim to the old charm. 
The slave girl, with a wild gesture, offers 
herself to him. Simultaneously, Dea mo- 
tions him with prayer to go with her. He 
makes some pitiful indecisive motions be- 
tween them. Dea wrings her hands; the 
slave girl smiles; when, with a sudden 
gesture of despair, Gwym plane takes out 
his knife and makes a motion of cutting 
out his hearty then sinks upon the ground, 
and suddenly holds up his heart dripping 
with blood in his two pale hands. The 
slave girl tries to snatch it, but he gives it 
to Dea, who presses it against her own. 
GwYMPLANE breathes his last, and the slave, 
falling at the feet of Dea, licks the blood 
from the heart of her dancer off the floor. 
Miniature curtain descends to some 
strange music recalling the chimes of a 
clock.] 

Queen 

What an extraordinary pantomime! I 
53 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

think these mummers act too well. They 
will leave a memory, and I have far too many 
memories already. 



Josephine 

[Trying to conceal the impression the 
play has made on her.] 

I shall never have any memories. When 
the door closes I shall forget. 

Prince 

Perhaps you are not so agile as you think. 
Something of you may catch in the door 
when it slams, and go on aching forever. 

Queen [tolerantly] 

Inexperience can always afford to be a little 
ridiculous, can it not? [rises] Well, it has 
all been very entertaining. I have really 
immensely enjoyed myself. 

[Turning to her courtiers and taking a 
brooch from her lace.] 

I think we should give the clown some token 
of tonight's amusement, [to a servant] Go 
and tell Messire Gwymplane to attend us. 

54 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Prince 

The performance of this mountebank has 
agitated me. [passing his hand over his brow] 
I want to forget something in motion, in 
motion. 

Josephine 

[Looking at him and at the Queen, and 
twinkling with a sort of spiteful mischief.] 

It will be deHcious to dance tonight. The 
starving should dance, the replete should 
dream ! Come ! [takes his arm] 

Prince 

What an exquisite thing for you to say to 
me — just at this moment. 

[Queen glances at them with an expres- 
sion of pain and hatred. An attendant 
approaches the Queen, who breaks sharply 
out of her reverie.] 

Queen 
You have not brought the clown ? 

Attendant 

The owner of the van begs indulgence of 
your Majesty. The clown has wandered off 

55 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

somewhere, as is his habit, and cannot be 
found. 

Queen 

How annoying! Well, the amusement I 
should have had in giving him this is really 
the only reason for such a gift. 

{Replaces her brooch and turns to an 
attendant] 

Tell these mountebanks to leave the palace 
grounds before dawn. 

Attendant 
Yes, your Majesty, [hows himself out] 

Josephine 

I am glad he did not appear. He would 
have been horrible to look at closely. 

Prince 

You are cold. Let me arrange your cloak 
more closely about your shoulders. 

Queen 

Wrap my dear sister by all means, Charles, 
but if you can — from the inside out. 

[Continues her conversation with a 
courtier.] 

56 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Josephine [in a low voice] 

How she dislikes me ! But dislike is amus- 
ing when the hours are just ending that make 
one the slave of its temper. 

Prince [bending over her] 

Tomorrow, Josephine. . . . Tomorrow 
you will be safe forever from her rudeness. 
She will need us; our united fortunes will be 
the bank for her gambling. 

Josephine 
Ah ! tomorrow — tomorrow ! 

Queen 

Josephine, take your prince and await me 
in the ballroom. 

Josephine [glancing toward the cart] 

It is very pleasant here, your Majesty. 
The air is cool so far away from candlelight, 
and I have an inclination to headache. 

Queen 

Why, a moment ago you said, "Let us 
dance," to which you added as your own a 
quotation from something you had read. 

57 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Josephine 

[Who has been edging nearer the cart 
and looking with curiosity about her.] 

Idle people are moody, your Majesty, but 
if . . . 

Queen [sharply] 

It is my pleasure that you should await me 
in the ballroom. 

Josephine 

Your Majesty. . . . 

[Bowing low and taking the arm oj the 
Prince, looks up archly into his eyes.] 

We will ask the musicians to play one of 
those new waltzes, that make me close my 
eyes quite up with delight. 

[Prince gazing enraptured, leads her 
out.] 

Queen 

[Furiously, turning to Phedro who has 
flitted in and out since the cessation of the 
performance, in a low voice.] 

I would speak to you. [to courtiers] You 
are at liberty to precede me to the ballroom. 

[Courtiers go out.] 
58 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Queen [leaning against a balcony] 
Ah, Phedro! 

Phedro [answering her tone] 
My Majesty, my sovereign star. 

Queen 

It is growing late and still nothing has 
been done. I cannot see that there is any- 
thing to do. Oh what discomfort! 

Phedro 

Your Majesty's eyes are too full of pain to 
see clearly perhaps. 

Queen 

I am obsessed by a dream, and in this 
dream my whole life lies snared and gasping. 

[Dea appears in the background of the 
cart, arranging things for the night. 
Phedro glances at her quickly and then 
back at the Queen.] 

Phedro 

There is a loose stone in every wall if one 
scratches long enough, yet in taking one's 
desire there may be surprises, unpleasant 
surprises. 

59 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Queen 

But if ever one clutches the echo of one's 
own heart, what difference if a pox of mad- 
ness seize the whole world? 

Phedro 

If you are willing to mean always what you 
feel now, your Majesty. 

Queen 

Don't talk absurdly, Phedro. Always is 
never more than now. And now is ever a 
part of eternity. Ah, I will make you more 
than you would dare ask if there is something 
to be done and you do it. Only I would 
rather not know the means. I would rather 
not be mixed up in the brew or it might sicken 
me afterwards to drink — of the Spring of 
Life. 

Phedro 

May I beg for the reason of my scheme 
to be left by your Majesty for a little? 

Queen 

Yes, yes, I go, Phedro. Oh, I would not 

have this if I thought it would deprive him 

of anything he really wanted, but he is 

ephemeral, aesthetic — in fact, he is a poet 

60 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

and doesn't really care for people. It is only 
for what they can make him feel that he likes 
them. Ah, how fascinating it is in him to 
be like that! 

[Phedro bows over her hand, and she 
goes out. Sound oj Dea's singing comes 
very near the stage. Phedro hides he- 
hind some tall shrubbery. Dea steps out, 
tenderly sniffing the air.] 

Dea 
At last the Queen is gone ; the night is mine. 
What a fragrance, what an exciting fragrance ! 
It is as if all the rose petals in the world 
were fighting in the air! 

Phedro [stepping out, masked] 

Fighting in the air and in the dark, but 
that is human destiny, my dear young lady. 

Dea [starting] 
Who are you ? 

Phedro 
A deep and disinterested friend of yours. 

Dea 
It is late. ... I must be . . . [at- 
tempts to leave] 

6i 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Phedro 

Tell me . . . whom would you like to 
help most in the world ? 

Dea [gaily and innocently] 
Him whom I love most in the world. 

Phedro 

Ah, that is Gwymplane. 

Dea 
How did you guess? 

Phedro 

You are too innocent to understand the 
keeping of secrets, but if you wish to render 
Gwymplane a service . . . 

Dea 
I should like to more than to live . . . 

Phedro 

Well, take this letter in your hands tonight 
... to where I shall lead you, and give it 
to whom I shall appoint to receive' it. 

Dea 
But explain . . . 

62 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Phedro 

There is little I may tell you, and much that 
you will have to believe. I know of Gwym- 
plane unknown facts that would make him 
respected and rich to the end. of his days, and 
of course you would not wish him always to 
remain a clown. 

Dea 

I love him too much to detain him in the 
little area of my wishes. Yet why should / 
carry this note? ^ 

Phedro 

Because it must rea^h her Majesty by you 
before dawn. 

Dea 

Her Majesty? Shall I approach her 
Majesty ? 

Phedro 

You will observe many distinguished per- 
sons tonight, and at close range. 

Dea 

What shall I say? 

Phedro 

That you know, that you carry proof that 
63 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Gwymplane is fully entitled to all the imme- 
diate riches and respect this letter begs for 
him. 

Dea 

Oh, it will be wonderful to tell the Queen 
that Gwymplane is entitled to immediate 
riches and respect. How happy he shall be 
made at my hands! 

Phedro [half aside] 

Just so much chance have any of us got 
at the hands of those who love us. 

[Sound of a flute is heard.] 

Dea 

Gwymplane is coming ! 

Phedro [walking swiftly to Dea] 

Mind what I tell you. Walk, feel your way 
down this long avenue of cypress to your 
right, and stop at the first white marble door 
you touch upon your left. Wait there for me. 
When I come I shall imitate the call of a 
cuckoo in order that the attendants may open 
to us immediately. 

[Dea goes out hurriedly. Gwymplane 
saunters in with his strange, twisted walk.] 
64 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Phedro 

You roam late in solitude among the damp 
grasses. Does that not make you too melan- 
choly for jests? 

GWYM PLANE 

My ability to jest was affixed upon me by 
the gods in one of their humorous moments; 
however, anything may be written in the 
parchment under the seal. 

[He attempts to pass on.] 

Phedro [intently regarding him] 
You are a curious fellow. 

GWYMPLANE 

I think it is you who are curious, sir. 

Phedro 

Ah, that was spoken after the manner of 
your class. 

Gwymplane 

My class, of mountebanks, you mean? 

Phedro 

No, my meaning is gathering slowly. After 



5 



65 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

all, rain does not pour from the clouds until 
there has been sufficient mist. 

[GwYMPLANE looks at Mm intently, 
then once more attempts departure.] 

Phedro 
One moment. 

GWYMPLANE 

I beg you, sir, to let me pass. I am a prey- 
tonight to reveries that make of me a dull 
companion. 

Phedro [experimentally] 

A lady of the court was enraptured by 
your performance, a lady who for many years 
has been aware of nothing but herself. 

GwYMPLANE [starting almost imperceptibly] 
I am glad if my performance pleased 

Phedro 
It did much more. 

Gwymplane 

In the measure of amusement I may have 
caused I am not interested. 
66 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Phedro 

Nevertheless, it seemed to me that you 
were a little burned by the flame you cast out. 

GWYMPLANE 

Ah, I see that you enjoy pursuing other 
people's business; consequently you free me 
from the necessity of Hstening to you. 

Phedro [assuming anger] 

Come now, don't offend me. After all I 
am the steward of the Queen's court. It was 
I who obtained your licence to act in the 
palace grounds, and so apparently gratify 
a long-felt ambition of your lovely fellow 
artiste. 

GwYMPLANE [softened] 

Ah — Dea, yes. She has always dreamed of 
playing in the palace park. No, I do not 
wish to be rude to you, but I beg of you to 
cease your gossip. My task was harder 
tonight than usual. I am perhaps overtired. 

[He puts a hand to his head.] 

Phedro 

Come, are you not a man? Is not the 
admiration of 

67 . 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

GWYM PLANE 

Do not talk to me of these things. Do not 
talk of these things, I beg of you. [with a 
suggestion of sob in his voice] I am not like 
other men. 

[Unnoticed an equerry enters, and stands 
at Phedro's side with a large, scented and 
sealed envelope.] 

Equerry 
Your pardon, sirs. 

Phedro 

[Going swiftly over to the equerry, and 
in a low aside.] 

For whom is your letter? 

Equerry [in a whisper] 
For one Messire Gwymplane. 

Phedro [attempts to take the letter] 
I will see he gets it and reads it. 

Equerry 
Who are you? 

[Phedro pulls up his mask.] 
68 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

O, Messire Phedro. 

[He hows low and hands him the note.] 

Phedro [in a grand voice] 
You may leave. I will deliver your note. 
[then in a low voice for the equerry alone] Wait 
behind the hedge and I will give you an 
answer. 

[Exit equerry. Gwymplane starts to 
depart. Phedro puts his arm on his, 
detaini?ig him, while he opens the letter 
and reads it. A smile oj malicious joy 
crosses his countenance which he quickly 
cloaks with a look of alarm. He speaks 
aside:] 

How strange this is! Strange as if a 
precious bird long waited for in the night 
were to suddenly fly down and peck at my 
very gun. However . . . 

[He returns to himself with a start, walks 
over to the hedge where the equerry is 
waiting for the reply.] 

Say to her Grace that she is understood, 
and shall be almost instantly obeyed. [He 
turns to Gwymplane.] 

Gwymplane 

I beg of you, sir, permit me to depart. 
69 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Phedro 
There is trouble abroad and it concerns you. 

GWYMPLANE 

Me? 

Phedro 
Still there is probably much time. 

GwYMPLANE 

Explain. 

Phedro 
What do you call the bHnd girl ? 

Gwymplane 

Dea. It is not anything about Dea? 
There was not anything about Dea in that 
letter, was there? 

Phedro 
It was all about her. 

Gwymplane 
How? 

Phedro 

Listen. Instead of attending to this my- 
self, as I have done in hundreds of similar 
cases, I am going to take you into my confi- 
dence. 

70 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

GWYM PLANE 

What is it? What is it? 

Phedro 

Your lovely fellow artiste is gone. 

GwYMPLANE [crying out] 

Gone? My Deal That is impossible. 
She does not wish to go anywhere that I am 
not. 

Phedro 

Perhaps her wishes remained unconsulted. 
She may have been abducted. 

GwYMPLANE [drawing hack] 

What are you saying? It is so monstrous 
I must laugh or scream if I go on Hstening 
to you. [shakes Phedro by the arm] Come 
out with it. Where has she gone? But she 
is in bed! Where else? 

[He runs hack to the cart, and is heard 
calling frantically. The voice of Ursus 
answers him. Phedro stands listenings 
an e'u'il smile contorting his mouth.] 

GwYMPLANE [of Stage] 
Dea! 

[There is no answer.] 

71 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

GWYMPLANE 

{Re-entering hurriedly. Goes up to 
Phedro in a threatening manner] 

I do not understand. There is something 
moving around me that is foul and stealthy. 
Tell me what it is or I'll make you feel as 
if you were falling down an abyss of knives. 

Phedro 

Calm, my gentle talker. To consider al- 
ternatives, one must keep one's presence of 
mind. 

GWYMPLANE 

I know. I can imagine what these courts 
are like and I'll usher you into hell at once 
if you are trying to spatter any foul scheme 
upon what I love. 

Phedro 

Ah, Dea is yours? 

GWYMPLANE 

No, you squinting rodent. She is mine 
only as the light is mine, and she belongs to 
my soul as my prayers do. 

Phedro 
Be calm. You have misconstrued me and 
72 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

are wasting time hurling invectives at some 
unclean figure in your own fancy. 



GWYMPLANE 

Well, then, speak out quickly. 

Phedro 

The Prince has fallen desperately in love 
with her. He confided in me so much. The 
letter I received informed me that he had 
prevailed upon her in some manner to go 
with him and that I was to meet him in the 
palace at the stroke of the quarter to render 
him some service. 

GWYMPLANE 

I cannot believe it ; let me see the letter. 

Phedro 

[Searching his pockets and vest for the 
letter.] 

Gracious, I must have torn it up in my 
nervousness. Ah yes, there it is. 

[He points to some pieces of torn paper 
lying at his feet in the darkness.] 

73 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

GwYMPLANE [knocking his fists to his forehead.] 

You mean this letter came from him who 
is to marry the Duchess tomorrow? He who 
looks like the Athenian Victory, [glancing 
at his own distorted limbs] But Dea cannot 
see this, [and in a voice almost of triumph] 
And she cannot see him! He must have 
stolen her. 

Phedro [acidly] 

His eloquence would steal the pollen out 
of a flower. 

GWYMPLANE 

Ah Dea! But after all — he may have told 
her. 

Phedro 

What? 

[GwYMPLANE with a strange sad gesture] 
How I am. 

Phedro 

She has never known? 

GWYMPLANE 

Why should she ? [half to himself] It was 
sweet that she should love what I am — not 
what I appear. 

74 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Phedro 

Perhaps he has told her, and her hands 
have travelled over his face and found that 
it is very fair. 

[GwYM PLANE bends his head between 
his arms.] 

But maybe she has gone against her will. 

GWYMPLANE 

Yes, that is it. I must find out — O, God, 
take me to where I can find out. 

Phedro 

Wait for me here a moment and I will 
prepare for your entrance into the palace. 
It may be very difficult to effect an entrance. 

[He goes out and a few seconds after 
there is a sound of a cuckoo calling, fol- 
lowed ^'y the noise of a slammed d.oor. 
GwYM PLANE walks Up and down in dis- 
traction \ 

Ursus {from the cart] 

Gwymplane! Gwymplane! Is there any- 
thing the matter? 

75 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

GWYMPLANE 

I am nervous and restless. I have never 



been so restless. 



Ursus 



Well, walk far into the night, my son, until 
the iron clamping your brain with wakeful- 
ness melts, fades into that dew of restfulness 
falling upon all things before the dawn. 

Phedro [returning abruptly] 
Are you ready ? 

GwYMPLANE 

I am dying of readiness. 
[They go out,] 



CURTAIN 



76 



ACT II 



77 



ACT II 

Scene i 

[In the bedroom of the Duchess — ex- 
quisite, fantastic, with walls panelled in 
odd peacock blue. Upon these walls are 
crystal appliques of a bizarre design, 
looking like strange ear-rings and hold- 
ing within them amber lights. In the 
centre of the room falls a crystal candelabra 
with Jive small slender scarlet candles. On 
stage right a slender bed made entirely of 
the body of a swan — a canopy over it of 
pale rose net is attached with three blue 
feathers to the ceiling. This canopy drops 
over the head and foot of the bed. On 
stage left is a dressing mirror and table 
draped in fresh white muslin and rare 
lace. Below this table is a door — another 
door is directly opposite and behind the 
bed which faces the audience. In direct 
centre is a tall oblong ivindow draped with 
a daffodil yellow taffeta faintly striped in 
mauve. A little in front, beneath this 

79 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

window, is a directoire sofa covered with 
pillows of exquisite brocade. The chairs 
and other appointments of furniture are 
cream-colored, bespattered with flowers and 
reminiscent of Venice. On the right, just 
off centre a marble faun with grotesque 
features on a black onyx pedestal. The 
Duchess has set around its throat many 
of her priceless necklaces. 

A maid is seen preparing for the 
Duchess when the curtain rises. 

Enter the Duchess after a few seconds' 
interval.] 

Duchess 

How is it possible that he is not returned? 
How long has he been gone ? Did you notice 
what o'clock it was when I sent him? An- 
swer me, answer me something. Don't stand 
about bemused as if you had never heard of a 
clock, or Piccolo, or a letter since you were 
born. 

Maid 

He cannot have had your note beyond a 
few minutes, Madame, but I think 

[She bends in an attitude of listening. 
The Duchess is before her in opening the 
door on right,] 

80 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

[Piccolo, the same equerry seen before, 
enters bowing low.] 

Piccolo 
Your Grace. 

Duchess [with unconcealed impatience] 
Did you find the clown ? 

Piccolo 

Yes, your Grace. 

[He is obviously disturbed.] 

Duchess 

Could he read my letter? Did he appear 
to be reading it? [She walks swijtly up and 
down] Maybe he cannot read. 

Pi XOLO 

He did not receive the letter from me, your 
Grace. 

Duchess 
How do you mean ? 

Piccolo 

I think it was he who was standing with 
Messire Phedro, who took it from me to give 
it to him. 

6 8l 



CLAIR DE LUNE 



Duchess 



You tasselled ass, why did you let him have 
it? 

Piccolo [trying to save himself] 

Nay, your Grace, he gave it at once to the 
clown, for I know it was the clown standing 
with him by the spidery confusion of his 
limbs. Messire Phedro said I was to tell 
your Grace that you were understood and 
would be obeyed. 

Duchess [half to herself] 

Well, maybe there is some reason, [she 
turns to the equerry] Go about your business. 
Don't stand around as if you were expecting 
the lash or you will feel it. 

[The equerry rapidly retires. The 
Duchess turns to her maid.] 



Duchess 

Ugh ! Rid me of all this gHttering discom- 
fort. 

[The maid helps her out of the stiff 
wonderful dress and into a lovely azure 
garment sprayed with silver flowers.] 
82 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Duchess 

[Fixing the maid with a peremptory eye.] 

I will only consent to be disturbed by one 
person tonight. He will come alone or with 
Messire Phedro. He will be stooped, a Httle 
below the medium height, and will probably 
be in black. If the Prince command me I 
am already at rest. If the Queen command 
me I am ill. Do you understand that I will 
be at home to no one save this one visitor? 

Maid 

Your Grace is obeyed. 

[The Duchess walks over to the window 
and throws it wide open. Moonlight jails 
strongly in the garden just outside and 
water splashes noisily jrom the plump hands 
oj a dancing Cupid, poised airily upon a 
minute Doric column. The Duchess 
turns, jr owning impatiently as she watches 
the mxiid's motions about the room.] 

Duchess 

Go, go. How can you take so long to 
straighten a pair of slippers. 

[The maid retires precipitately. The 
83 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Duchess turns once more towards the 
window, glancing across the court.] 

There are shadows in Charles's room, 
wrangling shadows. 

{She puts her finger to her lip, biting 
it in a meditative manner.] 

Ah, somebody is trying to break away. What 
a bore it would be 

[There is a sound of a key clicking in 
the latch; the door on stage left opens. 
Phedro comes swiftly into the room. He 
checks an exclamation of the Duchess, 
speaking hurriedly.] 

Phedro 

I know, I guessed. Listen, Gwymplane 
has not had your letter. This was the only 
possible way. I have told him his blind girl 
is in the palace, in order to draw him hither. 
Play to that, first. 

[The Duchess hastily slips on a mask.] 

Gwymplane [entering] 
Where are we now? 

Duchess [coming forward graciously] 
I believe you seek — 

84 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

GwYM PLANE [hastily] 
The blind girl in my troupe. It appears 
she is in the palace. 

Duchess 

[Trying to conceal her joy at his arrival.] 

The palace is so amazingly large. Have 

you an idea in what part of the palace to look? 

GwYMPLANE [bitterly] 
Some sHght idea. 

Duchess 

Then you cannot do better than to send 
Phedro to the exact spot. 

GWYMPLANE 

Very well. We both will- 



[He makes a motion of departure,] 

Duchess 

No, no. [detaining him with her white arm] 
Let him go and discover where she is and if 
he cannot bring her here, then he shall return 
and take you to her. 

85 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

GWYMPLANE 

But that will lose time, I must- 



DUCHESS 

Mistakes are so much more disastrous than 
delay. One can pass unnoticed where two 
will be remarked. Trust to my better know- 
ledge of the court. 

GwYMPLANE [reluctantly] 

Very well, Madame. Only speed, Sir, 
speed, and return to me. 

Phedro 
I will, dear mummer. 
[He exits.] 

Duchess 

[Turning to Gwymplane with gracious 
triteness.] 

Ah, what an unexpected delight that I 
might tell you what pleasure your perform- 
ance gave. 

Gwymplane [standing stiffly attentive] 

Then my work is lavishly rewarded, 
Madame. 

86 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Duchess 

[In the tone of one who confers by asking 
a favor.] 

Do unmask. It is so very warm in these 
rooms. 

GWYM PLANE 

I consider but your comfort, Madame, in 
wearing my mask. 

Duchess [smiling subtly] 

Nay, you would be surprised at what con- 
vsiders my comfort and what does not. Your 
mask, for instance, does not. 

[She sinks upon her chaise longue, in- 
tensely graceful and beautiful. Gwym- 
PLANE lets his eyes rest upon her for a 
moment.] 

Your mask, do remove it. I have always 
heard artists were most gallant to women. 
See, I remove mine. 



GWYMPLANE 

[Stifled with surprise and emotion.] 
Madame . . . Madame. . . . 

87 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Duchess 

Come ! I command you to obey me. Pray 
take off your mask ! You can have no idea 
how I hate mentioning a desire twice. 

[GwYMPLANE removes his mask. The 
Duchess looks at him intently and sighs.] 

Duchess 

It must be wonderful to be you. 

[She motions him to a black cushion 
with golden tassels at the foot of her couch.] 

GWYMPLANE 

[Who has by this time mastered himself.] 

To be me, Madame? [bitterly] But of 
course your life is a revel of laughter ; so why 
should not your thoughts be forever jesting 
through your words? 

Duchess 
I am not jesting. 

GwYM PLANE [surprised] 
Madame ? 

Duchess 

It must be wonderful to be you and wind 

88 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

through forests and across hills into new 
cities with your drummers beating attention 
for you, through lines of unknown faces, faces 
over whom you have a rare — a great power. 
For you can moisten them with tears — choke 
away their breath with laughter. And after- 
wards, when you have finished your perfor- 
mance and are walking on the outskirts of 
some alien city, tell me, do not certain ones 
steal out to you and tell you of the blasphe- 
mous fancies you have stirred awake in their 
souls ? 

GWYMPLANE 

What are you saying, Madame, what are 
you not saying! 

Duchess 

[Leaning forward and taking one of his 
beautiful hands.] 

O, Gwymplane, I am lonely. You can 
have no idea how lonely. Everything around 
me is so false to my desires, is so alien to 
what I feel myself to be. 

Gwymplane 

You are so beautiful, Madame. Your 
loneliness only makes you more so. It lends 
89 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

the quality of a goddess to what is already 
earthly majesty. 

[He is about to press his strange lips to 
her hands, when suddenly he remembers 
and resists.] 

Duchess 

Ah, you were going to kiss my hand. Why 
didn't you kiss it? [She stretches it out close 
to his mouth.] See — here — here it is, most soft 
and white. 

[GwYMPLANE draws away, passing his 
hand across his brow. The Duchess 
leans toward him, almost over him.] 

I am very lonely, Gwymplane. Give me a 
few moments of forgetfulness. O, tell me 
about your life — tell me about what has 
happened to you. 

[She lays her hand upon his shoulder. 
Gwymplane takes it, kisses it, and looks 
up at her with flaming eyes and chalk-pale 
face.] 

Ah, that is nice! The touch of your Hps 
chills, burns me with forgetfulness. The 
touch of your lips is like a tide hushing, 
sucking my wakefulness down into depths of 
terrible oblivion. O, listen, you are grotesque 
90 



CLAIR DE LVNE 

— your limbs are like the coils of nightmaxe. 
I love you because you are so grotesque — 
because upon your face is stamped the con- 
torted beauty of your mind — your mind 
that is surely as amazing as your face. O, 
Gwymplane, tell me of what you have 
thought, tell me of what you are thinking. 

Gwymplane 

[Who is led into rapture hy her words, 
kneels and suddenly kisses her feet.] 

I am kissing your little white feet. It is 
like brushing my face amongst sprays of 
silken flowers. 

Duchess 

Ah, do not talk beautifully to me, Gwym- 
plane. 

Gwymplane 

But you are beauty ! What other language 
would you understand? 

Duchess 

Do not talk to me beautifully, Gwymplane. 
Talk to me with the savage pulsating words 
of your clown language. Talk to me as if 
you held a whip in your hand. [She catches 

91 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

at his hand] What marvellous hands you 
have ! Deceitful hands — for they look unlike 
the things they do — the things they must do. 

GWYMPLANE 

[Sitting upon her couch and bending 
over her lips.] 

I think you are something I have stolen 
out of a temple — a wonderful winged crowned 
figure that I have stolen out of a temple and 
profaned. I feel as if we were in a black 
barge upon a scarlet sea, as if in a moment 
it would dip over the horizon line and we 
should be lost forever together. O, I feel 
as if all the light in the world were flowing 
from behind the chalice of your pale face. I 
love you, I love you. 

Duchess 

[Drawing away from his straining arms 
and lips.] 

You love me, you love me! But you do 
not talk to me as if you were a clown. You 
do not speak to me with those curiously 
pungent words that are flung between men 
and women in the thickets near the booths. 
[almost pettishly] You do not talk at all Hke 
a clown, Gwymplane. 
92 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

GWYMPLANE 

[His eyes slowly travelling over her body.] 

I do not understand — I cannot understand 
why you permit my hands to touch you. 
Does not the flame from my hands burn you 
as they tremble and hover nearer, nearer to 
your scorching loveHness? But I think you 
are ivory, ivory dyed in hues of dawn and 
sunset. 

Duchess 

Ah, I wish you would not speak to me 
beautifully. I tell you beauty is not so dear 
to me as ugliness. O, Gwymplane [with a 
rather coarse gesture nudging his arm], O, 
Gwymplane, tell me of love as I want to hear 
of it, and I will love you better than all the 
rest! 

Gwymplane 

The rest ? [he presses his hand to his temple] 
There are no rest. There was one — O God ! 
I am lost! Nothing matters now [in a shrill 
voice]. I — I have found out what I can be ! 

Duchess 

[Stretching herself and smiling upon 
him.] 

How happy I am with you, my distorted 

93 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

lover! Only I wish you had not taken the 
white paint from your face. I wish your lips 
were fantastically scarlet as when you 
danced. I wish you were in your clown's 
dress and that the circus dwarfs could be 
here, playing their evil music while we 
talked. Kiss me. 

GWYMPLANE 

[Drawing away and gazing at her in 
rapture.] 

But my heart is here, underneath your 
slender foot. O, my heart has no will of its 
own but is only a reckless fever leaping, 
shivering after crumbs of your favour. 

[He is about to kiss her, when suddenly 
the Duchess turns aside — an odd numb- 
ness creeping over her features.] 

Duchess 

Something is wrong — terribly wrong. You 
do not speak to me like a clown. You are 
not like a clown. Who are you — what are 
you really? 

GWYMPLANE 

My love [he turns to kiss her shoulder], I 
94 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

am your lover. What does any other reality 
matter tonight? 

[There is a knock at the door on stage 
left. GwYMPLANE starts to his feet, fling- 
ing upon the Duchess a look of terror.] 

Duchess [biting her lip — calls out] 
Who dares to disturb my rest ? 

Voice of Prince Charles 
It is I. 

Duchess 

Well? 

Charles 

Phedro told me he thought he heard you 
cry out a moment ago ? 

Duchess 

Ah, so it is he — [her face has grown dark and 
furious] or does he push in some accident to 
favour me. 

GwYM PLANE [in a low voice] 

Treachery — if I had not been so mad all 
evening I could have smelt it on every gust 
of air. 

95 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Josephine 
Hush, don't ruin us. 

Charles 
Did I hear you speak? 

Josephine 

No, Charles. I was merely muttering a 
few imprecations at you for disti;rbing my 
rest. 

Charles 

You want for nothing ? 

Josephine 

For nothing save to be left in peace. 

[The footsteps of the Prince are heard 
receding. Suddenly through the open 
French window steps Dea. Gwymplane 
shudders back with horror. The Duchess 
looks in amazement and anger at the lovely 
apparition. Gwymplane with a gesture 
of supplication implores her to be silent. 
The Duchess returns his look contemptu- 
ously.] 

Dea [advancing into the room] 

Where am I ? Someone took me out of one 
room and pushed me in here. 
96 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Duchess 

I am the Duchess of Beaumont. You are 
in my room. 

Dea 

O, I am glad, Madame. I have been ter- 
ribly frightened all evening. 

[GwYM PLANE stands Jrozenly against 
the wall.] 

Duchess 
Really? By what? 

Dea 

I was looking for the Queen. I was being 
guided to the Queen's apartment when sud- 
denly I found myself in a room with some 
gentleman. 

Duchess 
Ah, what gentleman, I wonder? 

Dea 

I do not know. I am blind and he would 
not answer me. But I felt his hand to see 
if it was the Court Steward's. It was not the 
Court Steward's hand, for this man wore a 
ring with a gigantic stone. 

7 97 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Duchess 

[Always unquestionably upon the right 
scent of anything damaging to her vanity.] 

An oblong stone ? 

Dea [pausing 

Yes, your Grace, I am sure it was an oblong 
stone. 

Duchess [her face becoming very malicious] 
Well, what did he wish of you? 

Dea 
He said many things to me. He told me 
how I appeared to him in all things beautiful, 
and that he wished to steal me away forever 
from the troop and for himself because he 
loved me. 

Duchess [starts] 

[GwYMPLANE wrings his hands in im- 
potent jury.] 

Strange those bundles we possess, that are 
of no value to us whatever, should, neverthe- 
less, when they fall into the river, become 
precious as gold, [she snaps her fingers] So 
much for faithfulness! And you answered 
this gentleman? 

98 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Dea [looking around abstracted] 

Your Grace, is there anyone else in this 
room? 

Duchess 
I don't think so. 

[GwYMPLANE starts imperceptibly. The 
malicious Duchess, reading his thought, 
shuts the window and locks it. Gwym- 
plane looks at her in terror] 

And what did you reply to your prepos- 
terous lover, little gipsy thief? 

Dea 

Madame ! 

Duchess 

Unconscious, charming thief of affection 
that should tonight, if ever, have been faith- 
ful ! So [half to herself] one can be jealous of 
a man without caring a rap for him! Well, 
it is something to have found out that vanity 
is the ruHng passion. I shall take more care 
of its feelings than ever after this. But — 
your story, little bHnd girl. 

Dea 

O — I stretched my arms out against this 
gentleman and prayed, and my prayer was 
99 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

heard, for Phedro came and said he thought 
he had heard you call, and this man went out 
telling me to remain, when a pair of hands 
suddenly laid hold upon my wrists and led 
me out into the air, then pushed me into 
this room. 

Duchess 

Think how disappointed your lover will be 
when he returns and finds you gone! 

Dea 
I do not care what he should think. 

Duchess 

Your affections are already a wreath upon 
some mortal head, eh? 

Dea [modestly] 
Yes, I love, I am beloved. 

Duchess [quizzically regarding her] 
By whom, pray? 

Dea 
Messire Gwymplane of the circus troop, 

100 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Duchess [throwing back her head and laughing] 

No? Beloved by Gwymplane, you say? 

[GwYMPLANE looks at her in a horror 
of bewilderment, the point oj her conduct 
beginning to pierce his heart.] 

Dea 

yes, beloved by Gwymplane. 

Duchess 

It seems to me, child, that upon this some- 
what fantastic night we have perhaps changed 
partners. 

Dea 

Madame ? 

[Gwymplane stands rigidly silent. The 
Duchess plucks a flower from a vase, 
throwing the petals over Dea's head in a 
gesture half gay, half brutal] 

Duchess 

At last the whimsy of my soul is out- 
matched by the turn of events. 

Dea 

1 hang upon your words, Madame, yet I 
do not understand them. 

lOI 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Duchess 

Still you and I have proven to each other, 
with and without intent, the existence of a 
quality common to the world at large — faith- 
lessness, look you. 

[With an almost violent gesture she 
drags Dea over to Gwymplane and places 
her hand upon the familiar form.] 

Dea 

[Feeling with gradually hurrying, hys- 
terical fingers.] 

Gwymplane, my love ! 

Gwymplane 
Ah, Dea, yes. 

Dea 

How wonderful to find you in this terrible 
nightmare — like a fire flaming up before 
snow-lost feet. 

Gwymplane 
My Dea. 

[She puts her hand upon his shoidder, the 
Duchess regarding them through her 
lorgnette.] 

102 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Duchess 
What an idyl! How it refreshes me to 
watch. However, come, clown, take the girl 
and begone. Here is a crown for your love — 
it did not please me, you know, so you are 
getting far more than your deserts. 

Dea [halting] 

Your love, Gwymplane? She said your 
love? 

Gwymplane 

Anyone can misuse a word, but my voice 
is lost in a stammer of shame. 

Dea 

I do not understand, but for what is love 
save to pass understanding? [She puts her 
arm through his] Come, let us go. 

Duchess [with furious malice] 

What a charming way of conducting life, 
little bhnd girl ! When your lover is tired of 
pursuing his latest fancy and has been thrown 
out [almost stamping her foot] he will return 
and grow warm in the rays of your faith 

Dea 

Gwymplane will not fancy anyone save me. 

103 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Ursus says so, and besides I know it — I could 
not live if I did not know it. 



Duchess [laughing] 

[GwYMPLANE steps menacingly towards 
her,] 

Clown, clown, you shall not murder me 
because I do not champion your deceits, [to 
Dea] Your lover does not care that I should 
repeat the poetry of his conversation to me 
this evening, but it was such rare poetry — 
more rare than I wanted in fact, [mimicking 
derisively] *'I feel as if we were in a black 
barge upon a scarlet sea, as if in a moment 
our boat would dip over the horizon line, and 
we two should be lost forever," or — here is 
another pretty line — "I feel as if all the rays 
of light in the world were flowing from behind 
the chalice of your pale face." 

Dea [putting her hand to her heart] 

Oh, Gwymplane — the last thing she said — 
was so like — so like 



Duchess 

Maybe it is a stanza that he says to all of 
us. Poets are peculiar creatures — they have 
104 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

their lines by heart and insist upon repeating 
them, even at the wrong moment. 

Dea [staggers] 
Gwymplane, my love— for you are my 
love— I am terribly hurt somewhere— Let us 

go- 

Gwymplane 

[Supporting Dea and turning to the 
Duchess.] ^ 
You did not have your pleasure, I know, 
and 

Duchess [pointing imperiously] 
Go, clown. I can add the situation up my- 
self. No, I think I want another word with 
you. 

[Gwymplane, unheeding, tries to pass 
her with Dea upon his arm.] 

Fool, obey me, or embrace a peril that will 
choke you and your Httle friend of disobedi- 
ence. Come, she shall await you in my pri- 
vate conservatory. 

[She makes a gesture as if to separate 
them.] 

105 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

GWYMPLANE 

I shall go with her. 

Duchess 

Nay, suspect no more mousetraps. Lead 
her there yourself ; see that she is comfortable 
among the candles and flowers, then return 
to me for your own interest and for hers. 

[GwYMPLANE leads Dea out door on 
left and returns.] 

You have had a strange evening for a 
mountebank — an evening filled with such 
events as to strain almost any amount of 
discretion. 

GWYMPLANE 

I shall not talk. 

Duchess 

Not of oiirselves, of course. No man, not 
even a clown, but draws a veil across his 
rejected flesh. 

GWYMPLANE 

Well then? 

Duchess 

But in that spiritual condition which fol- 
io6 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

lows being repudiated your muscles will 
probably be seeking, straining, to express 
your mind and the direction will probably be 
to avenge your blind girl. 

GWYMPLANE 

All that in my own way, Madame. 

Duchess 

And your way will be? Come. 

GWYMPLANE 

Ah, Madame, I am weary of your com- 
mands. Over my actions you have a certain 
power, but, as my mind and what shall come 
out of it is still mysterious to me, I am afraid 
you must share the discomfort of my own 
ignorance. 

Duchess [in a more kindly tone] 
Listen to me, clown. You were brought to 
me tonight to relieve me of a whim, I admit 
that. And you brought me no reUef. 

GWYMPLANE [with sophistication] 
The question interests me dispassionately, 
Madame. But, considering you waived my 
107 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

personal defects [he winces], just why did I 
not — please you? 

Duchess 

But I told you before — I wanted a clown, 
and you talk like the very essence of all these 
lords and poets. But that is aside — I am to 
be married tomorrow. 

GWYMPLANE 

I know, — to him — and you wish him spared 
the public lash of scandal, I suppose. 

Duchess 

He need not be spared it entirely — I do 
not ask that. You can make plea to the 
Queen, if you wish, the day after the cere- 
mony — only not tomorrow. Much rests on 
that for me. 

GWYM PLANE 

Madame, with the insolence of your class, 
you are asking favours of one whose degrada- 
tion you have sought and shared. 

Duchess 

Perhaps, but you must remember that I 
am the sister of the Queen and can impose 

1 08 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

obedience to the most insolent favours T 
choose to demand. 

[A loud knock Jrom the door leading into 
the conservatory. Gwymplane starts to- 
wards the door. The Duchess holds him 
back.] 
Truly an eventful hour, [she raises her voice] 
Ah, what now? 

Voice of the Queen 
I heard you were so indisposed you could 
not come to me even upon the most urgent 
matter. 

[The Duchess signifies with a gesture 
of jury that she is aware of being fatally 
played against. In the meantime the 
Queen is putting her own key into the 
lock. Josephine turns with supplication 
to Gwymplane, at length too afflicted by 
the situation to guard her poise] 

Duchess 
You would not talk like a clown. Be- 



I know you — a gentleman. Save me! Save 

us! 

[She points to a door.] 

In there— a blind closet. Do not attempt 
to escape or we shall hear you. 
109 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

GWYMPLANE 

[Bowing low and casting an ironic eye 
upon the panic of the Duchess.] 

There is at least a peculiar variety in your 
demands, Madame 

[The door barely closes upon him as the 
Queen enters continuing her speech.] 

Queen 

Consequently, if you are too ill to attend 
the Queen, it is but human for the Queen to 
await anxiously upon you. But, my dear — 

[The Duchess is biting her lip with 
ill-concealed rage.] 

You do not look ill — you look angry. Have 
there been disturbing things? 

[She plucks the curtain aside, and lets 
it drop, but continues looking about her 
with assumed carelessness.] 



Duchess 

Nothing more disturbing than being con- 
tinually interrupted — I do not speak of your 
Majesty's visit — when I wished to remain 
undisturbed. 

no 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Queen 

How annojnng to have one's solitary rev- 
eries continually scattered by people ham- 
mering at the door. What did they all want ? 
Who were they? 

Duchess 
There was Charles. 

Queen 
And after that? 

Duchess 

O, various people asking ridiculous ques- 
tions. 

[She plucks a large bit of heliotrope from 
the bowl and bites it rather vengefully.] 

But, my sister, do confide in me the august 
matter that can necessitate your being abroad 
at such an unearthly hour. 

Queen 

There is no one that can overhear us ? You 
have dismissed your servants? 

Duchess 

O, hours ago. [rather insolently] You may 
feel quite at your ease with me. 
Ill 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Queen 
You will forgive my poking about, Jose- 
phine? But you are so vague — all artistic 
and beautiful natures are vague — you might 
easily have forgotten that Piccolo is hanging 
about somewhere waiting to carry a last good- 
night word to your impatient bridegroom. 
Why, there is a strange girl sitting at this 
very moment in your conservatory. Her face 
was somehow familiar. 

Duchess [commencing to be rather distracted] 

Ah, yes, a late hamper of my wedding 
clothes. The girl awaits for me to repay her 
pains for coming. But, indeed, your Majesty, 
I would be flattered if you would accept my 
word that we are alone here. 

Queen 
Dear child, naturally, I accept your con- 
viction that there is no one about, but I do 
not trust your memory. I admire too much 
the artist in you for that. Ah! Do I hear 
someone scratching apologetically upon the 
window? [smiling] Really, no wonder your 
sense of privacy is outraged tonight. 

Duchess 

Who now? 

112 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Prince [in a slightly frantic voice] 

I, Josephine. Did anyone pass in by this 
window a few minutes ago? 

Duchess 
[Looking at the Queen, whose ironic 
countejiance struggles with real emotion.] 

Who should? You perceive the curtains 
are drawn. 

Prince 
A girl — one of the troupe of mountebanks 
— a blind girl. Phedro brought her in with a 
most important letter for the Queen. He left 
her a moment, returned, and she was gone. 
He hesitated to disturb you at this late hour ; 
so I told him I would come myself and ask. 

Queen [sudderily speaking in a tone of relief \ 

Ah, with a note for me. Is it only that? 
For Heaven's sake, don't go on talking 
through a closed window, Charles. It gives 
such an air of tension to everything. Jose- 
phine, open the window to Charles. 

[Josephine obeys.] 

Prince 
[Stepping into the room so befogged with 

8 113 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

his own agitation as to have no room left 
for astonishment at the presence of the 
Queen.] 

Josephine, your Majesty, are you quite 
sure 

Duchess 

My dear Charles, do you think I am in the 
habit of not noticing the intrusion of perfectly 
strange women into my apartment at night? 

Prince 

Then you saw no one? 

[Duchess smiles enigmatically.] 

Queen [addressing the Prince] 

Why are you so anxious that this message 
from the blind girl is delayed? Or are you 
just naturally upset about everything to- 
night, being so near the altar? 

Duchess 

Ah, yes, so near the altar. Tell me how 
have you spent these last free hours, Charles ? 

Queen 

I hope you have spent them romantically, 
fingering a lute or something. 
114 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Duchess 
Fingering something — was it a lute, 
Charles? 

[Charles glances at the Duchess in 
alarm. The Queen intercepts the look and 
grows a little uneasy herselj.] 

Queen 

You seem to be throwing dirt at one an- 
other out of a bonbonniere. I have a feeling 
I should extremely disHke to hear you actu- 
ally explain yourselves. I wonder where 
Phedro is. He has hinted to me of extraor- 
dinary news for tonight, [she opens the win- 
dow and looks out] And now it is almost 
dawn. 

[She calls Phedro, and opens the door 

through which she has entered the room, 

calling Phedro.] 

Voice of Phedro 
Majesty, I come. 

[He enters. The Duchess gives him a 
fearful look, which he returns with a grim 
smile.] 

Queen 
You promised significant news for me after 
"5 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

midnight and in the apartment of the 
Duchess. I have come. It is long beyond 
midnight. What have you to say? 

Phedro 
We are strictly in private, your Majesty? 

Queen 

Assure yourself. I had some feeling about 
it myself a few minutes ago. 

[Phedro steps at once to the door where 
the mountebank is concealed, but the 
Duchess with a haughty look actually 
forestalls him, opening the door herself. 
GwYMPLANE steps into the room. The 
Queen pretends to be speechless. The 
Prince is] 

[stiffly] Your Grace, the Duchess of Beau- 
mont will please explain. 

Duchess 

Oh, this mountebank was merely seeking 
the blind girl from his troupe, who had been 
admitted, or possibly abducted, into the 
palace. 

Queen 

Abducted, really ? By whom ? For whom ? 
ii6 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Duchess [with a glance at Charles] 

We do not know, but we guess possibly. 

[At the word ''abducted'' Gwymplane 
steps menacingly up to the Prince. The 
Queen catches the look of hauteur and 
hatred that is exchanged between them. 
She hastily discovers some growing dis- 
comfort from which she slides away in her 
usual fashion by pursuing another chan- 
nel of thought.] 

Queen 

Nevertheless, why does he seek his partner 
in your Grace's closet? 

Prince 
Josephine, good God — what are you? 

Duchess 

What you are or would be, Charles — a star 
of the nobility, shedding its single glory for 
the last time 

Queen 

Come, come, cease your language. Why 
was this mountebank in your Grace's closet? 

"7 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Duchess 

He flew to the nearest door in the opposite 
direction from whence came your Majesty's 
voice. I suppose he lost his head in his 
embarrassment. That is a quality of the 
lower classes. 

Queen 

Your answers are tedious evasions. They 
explain nothing save what you wish to con- 
ceal — your dishonour, [she turns to Gwym- 
plane] Mountebank, I think you have 
ruined and frustrated the life of a most im- 
portant personage in our court. , 

Phedro 

Hold, hold. A bat has not torn a Hly as 
you suppose, your Majesty. 

Queen 

No? Then what has happened, Phedro? 
And do drop your metaphor. We are not 
wise enough so late to do it justice. 

Phedro 

Two stars have blundered together, that 
is all. Her Grace the Duchess of Beaumont 
and His Highness Prince Ian of Vaucluse. 
Ii8 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Prince 

My brother? Here? But my brother is 
dead ! Where can you have imagined to have 
seen my brother? 

Phedro 

[Approaches Gwymplane making him 
a low bow.] 

Prince Ian of Vaucluse. 

[Gwymplane, as if he saw madness, 
loses the nervous control of his features hy 
which he ca7t efface his terrible grin, and 
his face grows convulsed with it.] 

Queen [regarding him and laughing shrilly] 

Here is some monstrous joke devised by 
Phedro. Why, Josephine, if this were true, 
then he — the clown — would be your fiance, 
nor have a right to reject you, since sharing 
in your rather disreputable offence. Ah, 
what folly! [she places her hand upon her 
heart, gazing at Prince Charles] But how 
I would like to credit the wildest phantasy 
tonight. 

[The Duchess is looking on disdain- 
fidly as if witnessing rather a boring farce.] 
119 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Phedro [looking intensely at the Queen] 

When the thing that we have longed for 
comes true, it may sound Hke madness. I 
have every credential to prove my extraor- 
dinary announcement. 

Queen 

[Looking whimsically from one to an- 
other.] 

Ah, let us suppose for a moment, Josephine, 
that this were true. Surely you would be 
happy in a marriage so fortified by natural 
selection, and, as for Charles — the loss of 
certain things might be replaced by others. 

[She gazes at him tenderly.] 

Duchess 

[In a sudden outburst of confusion and 

ennui.] 

We are all gone mad. I feel as if we were 

in a web. I marry with a clown — the clown 

a lord — the lord a deformity. [She shudders] 

Gwymplane 

O, I cannot stand this hellish whirl another 

120 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

instant. It is biting my ankles off and blind- 
ing my eyes in a red sting of madness. 

[He attempts to throw open the door. 
Phedro swiftly forestalls him with wide- 
spread arms and a grim expression; 
GwYMPLANE turns away bowed from his 
ferocity of pain aitd bewilderment, while 
Phedro, with an incredible, greased swift- 
ness, lets himself out the door, and returns 
almost upon the instant with Dea terrified, 
supported on his arm.] 

Phedro [turning suavely to Dea] 

My dear young lady, calm yourself. 
Where is the letter? 

[Dea takes it from her breast. Gwym- 
plane looks at the letter in agonized 
amazement.] 

Dea 
You said I was to give it to the Queen. 

Phedro 

You are in the presence of her Majesty. 

[Dea makes a low curtsey, and holds 
out the letter. The Queen takes it from 
her with a strange, stiff gesture.] 

121 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Your Majesty, this is the missive sealing 
officially my tale. 

Queen 

[Reads the letter, her face played upon 
by expressions varying from incredulity 
to ironic joy. Turning to Phedro.] 

There is no doubt about this ? 

Phedro {turning a page] 
You note your Chancellor's signature. 

Queen 

[Finishes the letter and stands looking 
intently ahead of her . She suddenly speaks 
in a rather strange voice.] 

I hate to be trite, but my inner laughter 
is far too loud to be tamed into wit; so I 
think I must use the stock phrase, and ob- 
serve that truth is never so tedious as fiction. 
[she passes her hand over her brow] Come, 
clown, you may go, or rather my lord, you 
have my earnest leave to exchange our pres- 
ence for the open air, while we sit in judgment 
over these discoveries. You may take the 
young lady with you, who apparently cannot 

122 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

see [with a bitter look at Charles] the interest 
she evokes. 

[GwYMPLANE drags Dea out half faint- 
ing, but turns in the door, facing them alL] 

GWYM PLANE 

Take care. It is dangerous to be marion- 
ettes too long — even now your limbs may be 
turning into sawdust. 

[They exit without paying the Queen 
respect.] ^ 

Queen 

[Turning to Prince Charles and then 
to the Duchess.] 

How very uncomfortable he will make the 
House of Lords. Artists are terrible people, 
especially when they get out of their metief, 
and even if they were born gentlemen, [she 
takes a hand of the Duchess and of Charles] 
I request you both to be in my cabinet 
tomorrow morning as early as you can man- 
age to rouse yourselves after this rather full 
evening, and we shall see what it is fair to 
do in love [she glances softly and rather whim- 
sically at the Prince] and war. [looking fixedly 
at Josephine] 

[She throws both their hands away from 
123 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

her as if they had stung her. An equerry 
opens the door, and she exits abruptly.] 
Prince and the Duchess [bowing low to 
her departing back and murmuring] : 

Your Majesty is obeyed. 



CURTAIN 



124 



Scene 2 

[It is night upon the deck of a small, 
schooner, whose sails are outlined against 
leaden streaks, commencing to herald the 
dawn. 

Dea lies extended upon a low couch, 
beside the chair of Ursus. In the dim 
light her form possesses the eternal majesty 
of sculpture. From afar the voices of sailors 
chanting some sad litany of the sea. 
Ursus leans back in his chair, looking up 
into the face of departing night. Gwym- 
PLANE paces in and out, anguished with 
unrest.] 

Ursus [to Gwymplane, who hardly heeds him] 

Nothing follows us. It never occurred to 
them that a man should want to escape good 
fortune. They never think to bolt the door 
when they have gilded the walls. O, how 
profitably one can surprise these people who 
think the entire world reflects their contem- 
plation of self. 

125 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

GWYMPLANE 

[Who has not heard the preceding 
speech at all, comes in, halting abruptly.] 

Life, life. It has suddenly burst its leash — 
torn in among us like a mad dog and wounded 
us, mortally, I think, [glances at Dea] O, 
the pain, the tragedy that can come out of 
nonsense. Will Dea live, can Dea live? 

Ursus [sighing heavily] 

Perhaps, perhaps. How quiet and smiling 
she looks. There is some great pathos about 
her peacefulness as if Heaven were restoring 
to her something cruelly lost in this world. 

GWYMPLANE 

[Walking over to her couch and wringing 
his hands.] 

My love, my little love. 

[Ursus rising and soothing his agonized 
posture with a gentle hand, which Gwym- 
PLANE shakes off.] 

GWYMPLANE 

Oh, there seems no corner in myself into 
which I can creep, pull down the blinds, and 
shut out those horrible, jeering, grotesque, 
126 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

indecent processionals that I joined and made 
last night. 

Ursus 

My poor son ! You threw your body to the 
jackals for an hour. You forgot there was 
a soul in your body to get mangled along 
with the rest. 

GWYM PLANE 

Oh, my soul was not in all that. 

Ursus 

Most people perish from thinking Hke you. 
[earnestly] Somewhere in you is a blinding, 
transfigured face, struggHng up out of the 
sprawled, coiHng hmbs of infinite pasts, yet 
put it in certain conditions and it retains its 
fearful stamp of former bestiahty . But during 
death, death the last condition we follow, 
what a Hkeness unto God appears upon the 
features of the worst of us. 

GwYMPLANE [who is too tovtured to hear] 

Oh, how can 1 ever again catch at her lovely 

virginal hands ? [he lifts one very gently] Her 

hands have the sudden beauty and strange 

fragrance of flowers that bloom among sbad- 

127 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

ows. How can I ever press my lips against 
them again without bruising their dear shy 
softness by this weight of unworthiness I 
carry within me? 

Ursus 
Only through hope. 

GWYMPLANE 

Hope is for people who have not such keen 
noses as I. I can smell the decay in myself 
far too well to go near the person I love with 
it. Only to sleep, to sleep, and not have to 
make my way any more, through these bit- 
ing, malicious, stifling memories. How can a 
man's soul exist after he knows what sodden 
morasses the body can clamp him into! 

Ursus 

StumbHng may teach a man to hold his 
lantern nearer the ground. 

GWYM PLANE 

My arms are broken. They cannot hold 
anj^hing except despair. 

Dea [stirring faintly] 
[Ursus is immediately at her side and 

T28 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

benas over her, Gwymplane stands look- 
ing down over the back of her couch.] 

How fast we are going! What are we on 
that is moving so swiftly? 

Ursus 

We are sailing away, Dea, you, Gwym- 
plane, and I, toward happiness and safety. 

Dea 

I have always been happy, until 

[She puts her hand on her heart. Gwym- 
plane winces.] 

Ursus [speaking gently] 

Let me put my hand across your forehead 
and smooth you back into dreams as I used 
to when you were a child. That will be best. 

Dea 

I wonder, have I not passed what is best. 
You say that I am on a boat, but it seems to 
me I am going somewhere by myself, swiftly, 
eagerly, and that I am carrying my love for 
Gwymplane like a sheaf of liHes under my 
arm. 

[Gwymplane bends over, whispering 

9 129^ 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

her name out of the bursting anguish oj 
his heart.] 

Gwymplane, I feel your breath across my 
cheek. I feel your tears upon my face. Oh, 
why are you crying? 



Gwymplane 

My love, my dear love, there is too much 
beauty about you. You are an answer to 
the last wish of a man's heart that blows him 
over the gates of Paradise. Anyone would 
weep if the face of God were to shine out 
suddenly through their prayers. 

Dea 

Oh, I understand all that. I have felt that 
so often about you. 

[She puts her hand tenderly on his. 
Suddenly she raises herself on her elbow.] 

Gwymplane! Ursus! I think — I think I 
am about to see! There are bright stretches 
of colour beginning behind my eyes. 

[She lifts herself into a sitting position, 
stretching out her arms. There is a long 
pause.] 

O, I do see, I see! 

130 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

[She is looking up into the sky, which 
is becoming radiant with streaks of dawn.] 

I see a million pale ribbons fluttering 
through grey vapour. They are widening into 
rivers of colour, into vast dazzling spaces and 
some divine form is shining through now and 
sweeping all the darkness away off the world, 
with his golden wings. 

GwYMPLANE [turning ecstatically to Ursus] 

I believe she sees. 

[He suddenly cringes away from her, and 
speaks in a whisper to Ursus.] 

Maybe she will see me at last. 

Ursus 

She sees the sky of heaven. 

[Dea drops back upon Gwymplane's 
arm.] 

GwYMPLANE [with anguished apprehension] 

Oh, darling, do you still see? Do not stop 
speaking. Tell me more. 

Dea 

I cannot wait, I think, any longer. 
131 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

GWYMPLANE 

My love, then, if you are going before me, 
[a strange look passes over his face — he straight- 
ens himself] just a little before me, will you 
let fall some bright flowers from your 
breast that will make a track of light for me 
to follow in, so that we may perhaps waken 
together? O, love, how remote your beautiful 
face is becoming. Do you even hear me, I 
wonder. 

Dea [very low] 

I do hear. Gwymplane, come nearer. 
That night I tried to understand, but I 
thought with so much pain that I could not 
seem to understand. Now the pain is gone 
out of any thought and I understand now 
how little cause there was for pain. 

Gwymplane 
Beloved. 

Dea 

I know I am your beloved. Hold me close. 

[He wraps her fran tically in his arms . ] 

I want the blessing of your arms to be the 
last thing in my life. 

[Suddenly a look of recognition and joy 
152 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

floods her face, and her eyes seem to follow 
some divine approach. She murmurs]: 

How beautiful ! How right ! 

[And fluttering in Gwymplane's arms 
she is dead. He lays her gently hack, lifts 
one of her hands, kisses it, looks at her as 
if the last agony had been drawn out of 
his soul, then passes his hand across his 
brow, tries to speak, and after a long pause:] 

GWYM PLANE 

It appears we have made good our escape. 

Ursus [raising his head from his arms] 
The tide is with us. 

GWYM PLANE 

We are bound — where ? 

Ursus 
Westward. 

GwYM PLANE [with tendemess] 

Dear Ursus, you were leaving your country 
and going to face old age among customs, 
languages, peoples, strange to you, and to 
save us from the talons of a pack of cards. 
133 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Ursus 
You and I are going now, Gwymplane. 

GWYMPLANE 

I think I have no more knack for wearing 
costumes and masks, and I could not ask 
human beings to accept me as I am, either 
inside or out. Any reaHty is Hke a row of 
knives and each minute drags me backward 
and forward across them. 

[He seems to commune upon and decide 
something within himself. His voice 
breaks clearly over a long pause.] 

Good-night, Ursus, I am going up into the 
prow to seek some fresher air. 

[Ursus sits with his head on his arms, 
which are resting on Dea's coverlet. There 
is a faint shrill of sighing wind, with the 
voices of the sailors rising beneath it, and 
the ascending sun commences to throw red 
bars across the water. 

Suddenly the singing voices cease abrupt- 
ly and a sailor hurries in.] 

Sailor 

Sir, sir, a man has fallen into the sea! 
134 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Ursus 

[Starting out of his lethargy and speak- 
ing in a strange, numb voice.] 
Then put the ship about. We return. 

Sailor 

Shall we not lower boats and make search 
for this man — [he shudders and crosses him- 
selj] for this man who has fallen into the sea? 

Ursus [half to himself] 
Let a man rest where he has gone by his 
own will. 

CURTAIN 



135 



Scene 3 

[An antechamber communicating with 
the Queen's bedroom] 

1ST Courtier 

The air is very heavy this morning. 

2D Courtier 

It is as if the clouds had dropped down out 
of the sky, entered into this palace, and 
turned into leaden wheels, running over one, 
no matter where one hides. 

3D Courtier 
You are lucky to be able to talk. I am too 
depressed even to breathe. 

1ST Courtier 
I am terribly depressed, — but I am still 
curious. What do you suppose it is all about ? 

2D Courtier 

It is all about passions. There have been 
several conflicting kinds rushing through the 
136 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

atmosphere lately. Naturally the sea is a bit 
choppy for our painted sort of barks. 

[He nods about him rather contemptu- 
ously] 

3D Courtier 

You can at least talk no matter what 
happens. 

1ST Courtier 
Well, we don't seem any nearer knowing 
the truth. 

[Enter two ladies in a state oj great 
excitement.] 

1ST Lady 
What could you have possibly expected? 
I suppose the marriage is off. Josephine 
could never be interested in anything, and 
as for the Prince 

2D Lady 

His self -interest would push anything else 
out of him. 

1ST Lady 
Of course, if it is off, Josephine must have 
made him appear unbecoming and she prob- 
137 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

ably brought all the candles in the palace to 
help illuminate Josephine's mistake. Phew! 
they are all quite dreadful. 

1ST Courtier 

Sh! It is unwise to be so indiscreet, even 
in a crisis. Remember, we have to face each 
other, and all of these others every day for 
years. Perhaps the memory of your candour 
will make you feel a little ridiculous later. 

[Hand bell tinkles.] 

1ST Lady 

, The Queen's bell. 

[She goes to a door on right and timidly 
knocks.] 

The Queen's Voice [off stage] 
Is the Duchess attending me yet? 

1ST Lady 

No, Majesty. 

Queen 

Have me informed immediately upon her 
arrival. Until then, I wish you would discuss 
your absorbing trifles in a lower tone. My 

138 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

room is exactly like a sounding board for 
your idle conversation. However, I tell you 
all this with a recurring regularity that none 
of the rest of my life seems to possess. 

1ST Lady 

Your Majesty is obeyed, and our most 
humble apologies to your Majesty. 

[She closes the door softly.] 

Queen 

You haven't shut the door. You haven't 
shut it tight. Oh, for Heaven's sake, slam it ! 

[The court lady hangs the door with 
discretion.] 

1ST Courtier [whispering 

What a humour she is in ! What a woman 
of moods ! 

2D Courtier 

She is illusive. She is like a succession of 
masks, seen at dawn. In her there always 
appears a terrible wanness, right upon the 
heels of a wonderful freshness. 

3D Courtier 
I don't wish to seem unpleasant, but I 
139 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

wonder if you could talk a little less or say 
something. 

2D Courtier [regarding him witheringly] 

I should advise you to go off by yourself 
and drink some fleur d'oranger and bathe your 
temples in eau de cologne. Isolation is the 
only resolution for such ill-humour. 

1ST Lady 

Wasn't the Duchess radiant last night? 
If the marriage is not off I hear she will give 
a dance, a very small one, to celebrate the 
first month of her marriage. 

[Suddenly she looks rather uncomfort- 
able.] 

2D Lady 

All, you are wondering, shall we be invited, 
considering we are the Queen's favourite 
ladies ? 

1ST Courtier 

If everything is all right, when the Duchess 
comes let us think of something especially 
charming to say to her. Something that will 
hint, without asserting, our warmer attach- 
ment, [both ladies nod their approval] Sh! 
Here's Phedro. 

140 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Phedro 

[Enters, looking for the first time dur- 
ing the play as if a ghost had sucked his 
blood.] 
Is the Queen up? 

1ST Courtier 

She is awake, but wishes to remain undis- 
turbed until the Duchess arrives. 

Phedro 

Ah, then I shall go and polish my bullet 
a Httle more officially. 

[They all stare at him in amazement.] 

But has not her Grace been tearing the 
Queen's curtains back at dawn? 

1ST Lady 
No, why should she be? What has hap- 
pened ? 

[They all crowd around him.] 

A Lady 
The air seems sizzling with hghtning. 
Tell us, has the Queen done her some rude- 
ness again ? We were just saying how charm- 
141 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

ing she was and thinking of how to express 
our admiration to her on her arrival. 

Phedro 

Don't disturb your vocabulary for the sake 
of the Duchess. 

Ladies and Courtiers [in one voice] 
Why, what has happened? 

Phedro 

The Duchess does not exist any longer. 

A Courtier 

She is dead ? 

2D Courtier 

Artemis has risen to hunt, but in heaven — 

3D Courtier 

Good God! [he gradually recovers himself] 
What a shame the classics are taught. It 
lends a pulpit to such tedious people. 

A Lady 

Oh, we must know, if we are to live. What 
has happened to the Duchess? 
142 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Phedro [grimly — with finality] 
She has become declassee. 

[Everybody grows gradually stupefied.] 

A Lady [only partially recovering] 

You mean that she left the door open ? Or 
mislaid one of her Jewels somewhere? 

Other Lady [just able to murmur] 

You would suggest that she permitted her- 
self to be — discovered? 

Phedro 

Yes, her apartment was honeycombed with 
indiscretions. 

1ST Courtier [sharply] 

But what did that matter? Who plucked 
them out ? 

Phedro 
The Queen 

3D Courtier 

What an appalling mischance ' 
143 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

A Lady 

It is an outrage! People who are lazy 
enough to be found out are a menace to all 
of us. 

3D Courtier 

A gentleman will hardly know where he is 
safe when the Duchess of Beaumont can 
allow such an occurrence. 

Phedro 

I am afraid I must make my exit from this 
troubled surface and scrutinize more silent 
things. [Pause. Half to himself] I wonder 
how a man looks who has slept well among 
the touch and glide of fishes. 

A Lady 

What sort of horrible, wriggly thing are 
you saying, Phedro? 

Phedro 

I am tasting my own cooking. It is de- 
licious. However, enough public reverie. 
When the Duchess comes, announce her to 
the Queen in whatever manner fits your 
inclination. Take a good breath of bad man- 
ners. It will refresh you all. [he glances at 
144 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

his ivatch] Ah, 1 shall be late for a certain 
nulancholy addition of facts. 



Ladies 



What facts? 



Phedro 

You shall see. I have only read you the 
prologue. 

[He exits, almost bumping into the 
Duchess, who sweeps by him into the 
room. The courtiers stand about perfectly 
limp, enjoying their indifference.] 

Duchess 

I am present. [half turning] Kindly 
acquaint her Majesty with that fact. 

A Lady 

[Starts to courtesy, but suddenly remem- 
bers that she doesn't have to.] 

Very well, you can wait here. 

[The Duchess looks at her with incredu- 
lous amazement. Suddenly the voice of 
the Queen is heard.] 

Queen 

Is that the Duchess? 
145 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

The Lady 
It is, your Majesty. 

Queen 

Tell her to wait where she is. I shall be 
with her presently. Meanwhile you may 
disperse without formalities. 

Lady 

Your Majesty is obeyed. 

[She comes back into the room and 
together with all the rest gazes insolently 
at the Duchess as they file out. The 
Duchess stands, staring frigidly ahead 
of her and looking supremely beautiful.] 

Duchess [clenching her hands slightly] 

Fools! They would look better without 
their heads. 

[Enter the Queen, looking extremely 
pale and serious, evidently on the verge of 
some personal climax.] 

Queen 

My sister. 

146 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Duchess 

Your Majesty? 

[They bow formally to one another ^ then 
remain silent a little,] 

Queen 

O, what is the sense of trying to carry a 
meeting like this off? I have been too as- 
tonished lately to hold on to my savoir faire. 
Here are my explosions in a nutshell. The 
announcement that the clown Gwymplane 
is the Prince of Vaucluse I am satisfied is 
authentic. He is in consequence yonr fiance. 

Duchess [losing her wits in a temper] 

You must be mad to suppose I should 
really marry with a mountebank, a deformity, 
no matter what he has been born. 

Queen 

Evidently you forget the position you en- 
joy entails implicit obedience. 

[The Duchess is about to break out.] 

Please don't be banal. I couldn't bear to 
hear you say that your life was slavery. Your 
life is merely idiotic. Slaves were sturdy, 

147 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

magnificent people who understood massage, 
and you look as if a powder puff could blast 
you off the earth. 

Duchess 

You hate me ! 

Queen 
But you know that I knew you knew that. 

Duchess 

When Charles comes, or perhaps you don't 
permit him to come — possibly it would annoy 
you to see the anguish he will be in over me. 

Queen 

Vain people have the most curious faith 
in the unselfishness of everybody else. Ah, 
here comes the bone of contention, looking 
remarkably bright. 

[Enter Prince. He bends over the 
Queen's hand and gazes up into her eyes, 
speaking with a new thrill in his voice.] 

Prince 

My gracious cousin, I hope your health 
matches this exquisite morning. 
148 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Queen [abruptly pointing] 

There is Josephine. Give her some of your 
after-breakfast optimism. 

Prince 

Ah! 

[He bows rather distantly over Jose- 
phine's hand that is extended with unusual 
cordiality.] 

Duchess 

Charles, my dear, don't let us be absurd. 
Last night was a fantastic heaping of mis- 
chance. 

Prince 

You are neat in phrases, Josephine, but 
exactly what do they mean? And please 
don't sulk — only well-loved people can afford 
to do that. 

Duchess 

If you dare to presume to criticize me, I 
will 

Queen 

[Looks nervously at Prince, who in- 
terposes quickly.] 

149 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Prince 

My dear Josephine, I could not bear to 
have you hold me responsible for these gro- 
tesque discoveries of last night. Apparently 
he is my brother, and it should have been me 
who suffered those terrible deformities save 
for the mischievous meddling of a malicious 
servant ; but certainly now you are his lawful 
bride, and I have no other name than one 
the Queen's mercy can devise. 

Josephine 

But your Majesty will do something for us, 
after all, we love each other! 

Prince 

[Looks at Josephine over the edge of 
his buttonhole, into which his nose becomes 
completely submerged.] 

Do you love me this morning, Josephine? 

Duchess 
You loved me last night. 

Prince [sighing 

I think there has always been something 
a little angular in our relations and now that 
150 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

it has become my duty to relinquish you, I 
rather fancy there is no harm in assuring you 
it is also my pleasure. 

[A momentary look of pity for Jose- 
phine crosses the Queen's countenance, 
replaced by an obvious flow of childish joy.] 

Queen 
You have not really cared, but 



Prince 

Save for — but it is so very early and bright, 
and we are not alone. 

Duchess 

So sorry to be in the way. I shall hope to 
be dismissed presently. I can hear you are 
tuning up, Charles. Ah, well, I shall have a 
clown for a husband. What more should a 
married woman wish for? And plenty of 
time to catch the roses and the sighs wafting 
up from my gardens. But Charles, where is 
your little blind girl? 

Prince 

How should I know ? She found the Queen 
and delivered her note. 

151 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Queen 

How did you know she had a note to 
dehver ? 

Prince 

I ran into her with Phedro coming through 
the garden. He went to see if all was right 
with Josephine, while I 

Duchess 

Mingled hands, at least, for she said : * ' He 
told me that he wanted me for himself and 
forever, nor was he the Court Steward, for 
he wore a great oblong stone upon his hand." 
I hope she comes back with my intended, and 
tells to your Majesty the story of Charles's 
little lapse into the romantic. O, listening to 
her one must believe her, for she has all that 
obvious lack of fancy only to be found among 
rarely good people. Her face is quite open 
and classic, unbroken by the slightest hint of 
imagination. A lie couldn't possibly twist up 
through such regular lines. 

Queen 

[Over her face has gradually grown a 
singular change.] 

Mingling hands, ah, that was why — [she 

152 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

bites her Up, passing her hand across her brow.] 
However, to that later. Josephine — [in a 
kinder tone] I have made you acquainted 
with our disposition. Go now and prepare 
to become the Duchess of Vaucluse. 

[Josephine is about to exit, when 
Phedro enters hurriedly.] 

Phedro 
Your Majesty. 

Queen 

Oh, what an air of rush there is about every- 
thing this morning. Well, speak, speak. 

Phedro 

Her Grace cannot become the Duchess of 
Vaucluse, 

Queen 

Ah, why not? 

Phedro 
He is beyond us. 

Queen 

Do you mean that he has sought for him- 
self, the only satisfactory rest ! — a sleep with- 
out dreams. He is dead! — How? 

153 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Phedro 

The philosopher and the bUnd girl escaped 
with him at dawn ; long before sunrise an old, 
disused hulk was seen going down the river, 
and in the blaze of this morning has returned 
with only the philosopher and his hired oars- 
men. Apparently the blind girl died from the 
tremors of escape, and the clown in his grief 
found nothing left in himself to face life with, 
so he threw his distressed person into the sea. 

Queen 

So, Josephine, your second bridegroom has 
been seduced away from you by Destiny. 
Charles, your fortune, which was at any rate 
confiscate to your brother, now passes to the 
Crown. I wonder just how you will manage. 

[Charles throws her a tender, confident 
look which she evades] 

But one thing at a time. Josephine, what 
occurs to you in this fitful moment? 

Duchess 

Life nauseates me so at the moment that 
it is difficult to imagine any corner where I 
would not be too dizzy with hatred to stand. 
If you will permit me, I shall return to my 

154 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

rooms to think. There are some agreeable 
things scattered through my rooms that may 
possibly inspire direction. 

Queen 

Your sensations, Josephine, they have al- 
ways been so much more acute than your 
emotions. I wonder if you could not turn 
with a certain surprising equanimity from 
regarding the marble forms of your Greeks 
to the Gothic saints of wood and ivory, then 
one would detect incense in the fold of your 
shroud instead of patchouli in the pleats of 
your cambric. You know, probably you 
could find in the distortions of reHgious mania 
a perfect pendant to your taste for deformities 
in life. 

Duchess 

You are cruel, and you are irreverent. 

Queen 

Ah, my dear, in that last epithet speaks 
your extreme desirability for the vocation, 
superstition, which is nothing more nor less 
than fear of reason, or possibly a certain 
instinct that the truth would make every- 
thing look rather second class — if one is 
second class one's self. 
155 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Duchess 

I suppose it is not incumbent upon me to 
stand here in order that my character inspire 
you with further Socratic comment. 

Queen 

Not at all, my dear sister; by all means 
seek your fauns and draperies and forgive me 
for prattling on quite regardless of sowing the 
tragic seed — ennui. 

[At this juncture it is only the intense 
refinement of the Duchess which prevents 
her from Jailing into the unbecoming pos- 
ture of powerless invective. Phedro, who 
has listened to the foregoing, presumes here 
to interrupt.] 

Phedro 

Your Majesty, have I your permission to 
retire ? 

Queen [turning vaguely toward him] 

Certainly, certainly, Phedro. It must be 
extremely fatiguing to keep on hitting, one 
after another, so many peculiar facts. 

Phedro [bowing low] 
My position in your Majesty's vservice is 
156 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

far too exhilarating to permit of fatigue. To 
breathe is occasionally difficult [his voice 
lowers to something resembling a hiss], conse- 
quently to rest does not occur. 

[He glances about him as if at a group 
of neatly despatched marionettes — a glare 
of furtive hatred distorting his features, 
which is hastily veiled by his usual laconic 
humility. 

The Queen precipitates his departure 
with a wave of her hand, to which he in- 
stantly submits.] 

[Exit Phedro.] 

Duchess 
[Resuming in a voice of excessive 
boredom.] 

Well, adieu, Charles, I suppose you will 
go on alternating between vice and senti- 
mentality until the curtain drops. You 
know, one reason why you never attracted 
me? 

Prince 

Josephine, is this quite in taste? 

Duchess 
Taste is something one uses on arranging 
one's rooms, not upon human beings. 

157 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

Queen 

Well hit, Josephine. You have at least the 
satisfaction of going out to the ringing of the 
bull's eye. 

Duchess 
Possibly. 

[She exits after courtseying to the Queen, 
who returns it in proper measure. There 
is a silence. Prince looks tenderly at 
the Queen, who moves about in a rather 
staccato manner, disturbing perfectly placed 
bibelots and pieces of furniture.] 

Prince 
We are alone at last. 

Queen 

That word should sound like the fold of 
wings around one's exhausted body. 

Prince [archly] 

Substitute arms for wings, and could for 
should, if I may be permitted to correct 

Queen 

Oh, Charles, don't woo me with this poetic 
verbosity to take the place of feehng. It is 

158 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

so exactly what you would say to the brewer's 
daughter, had you selected her to save your 
estate and pay your bills. 

Prince 

Ah, Anne, Anne, why will you be so ironic? 

Queen 

Once or twice I thought of not being ironic, 
of looking into some person's eyes, and not 
finding that I had to look away, of resting 
with someone in a long silence full of ex- 
changed beauties. 

Prince [approaching her] 

Anne, dear, how 

[The Queen laughs and backs away 
from him, where he stands with his arms 
stretched out towards her. In her laugh 
suddenly there is a slight sob.] 

Queen 

Stand that way another instant, Charles. 
Ah, here is everything I have wanted, 
schemed for, wept about, in the position I 
have dreamt of it. [She glances out at the 
park.] The back drop is perfect also. Birds' 
159 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

song, the freshness of morning, sunHght, 
youth, — youth to be gotten through some- 
how. However, here it all is, a dream — and 
not turning pale as all the others did in day- 
Hght. Yet, strangely enough, I cannot find 
a self in me to come forward and take these 
things as they are now. 

Prince 

Anne, Anne, for God's sake — I swear to 
you I can explain everything. 

Queen 

Try not to let your fear of personal conse- 
quences intercept the pity you should feel for 
me. 

Prince 

Anne, I love you, I love you, 

Queen 

Why, why is it that people cannot watch 
anything die in silence? I suppose after all 
you are not sufficiently ruthless to carry 
off your own selfishness with any sort of 
dignity. 

Prince [sulkily] 

You do not believe me. You credit the 
1 60 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

report of a woman who has every reason to 
hate me. 

Queen 

No, I credit intuition, instinct that is al- 
ways stinging past what one wants to think 
and flinging some dismantled idol across one's 
feet. Somehow, from looking down at a lie 
one can never look up to that particular 
thing again. 

Prince 

It was the lie you minded more than what 
I did. 

Queen 

I think a truth, no matter of what kind, 
would have given me some point of exhilara- 
tion upon which to try you out. 

Prince 
Oh, Anne, I do not understand you. 

Queen 

It is as well we found out. How jocosely 

casual we are about our spirits. We tie them 

into some bondage of eternity for the security 

of a night's lodging, and then wonder that 

" i6i 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

life grows sour upon our palate, [she smiles 
over at Charles's bewilderment] Which 
means, in the literal terms of those who credit 
reincarnation, that if we married, those 
things you would have to do to keep your 
heart up would cause your next showing to 
degenerate into a sHght motion of slime at 
the base of mountains. Think of the distance 
lost, Charles, for such a little mincing forward 
step. Come, the morning wanes. Fortu- 
nately there are things to do, no matter what 
cannot be done. I shall return you half of 
your fortune, which, you will remember, is 
wholly confiscate to the Crown, but upon the 
condition that you pass the fleeting future 
from well under my nose. I could not bear 
to be incessantly reading my past, which is 
printed all over you in large letters. Really, 
Charles, you are a shifting mass of monu- 
ments to the hope of a ridiculous person. 

Prince 

You have broken my heart. I may as 
well go, I suppose. 

Queen 

Thank God, I have a Hteral mind, for what 
you have said, as you have said it, Hterally 
162 



CLAIR DE LUNE 

means, "I see you have found me out, so I 
suppose there is no use wasting any more 
time around here." 

Prince 

You are impossible. You think too 
quickly. 

Queen [smiling broadly] 

Charles, Charles, go now, now, while I am 
smiling at you. It will be nice to remember 
our saying good-bye and smiling. 

[She comes to him, takes his hand, looks 
up at him, but he will not let his face be 
natural. She smooths his face, apparently 
looking for some effect of Nature. Finally 
his features do relax into a rather sheepish, 
furtive smile.] 

Ah, now, I see you do not want to talk 
about it any more, and you do want to get 
right away. There, go. 

[She pushes him toward the door, and 
out through it, and he is heard remonstrat- 
ing with her dowm the hallway. In a few 
seconds she re-enters with his boutonniere 
in her hand. She looks rather strangely 
about her, and presses his flower to her 
mouth.] 

163 



CLAIR DE LUNE 
Queen 

My child, my love, it had to be good-bye 
this time^ 

[Far in the distance the air oj ''Clair de 
Lune" is being played upon myriad 
guitars and flutes \ 



CURTAIN 



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